Once Upon a Dream
by YamiMarik1994
Summary: After the hard fought battle with Malefor, they fell not only into a deep slumber, but into love. The two saviors of the realms reached across not only time and space, but into each others minds and shared a world unlike any before could have. Now faced with reality, can they still make each others dreams come true? Contains Spyro/Cynder fluff. Rating lowered to T
1. Second Time's The Charm

I hope you like this story.

Disclaimer: Spyro and all characters in here, except for one, are owned by Sierra Entertainment.

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The world around him looked like a blur, out of focus, and misshapen, His senses were confused and dazzled. The whole world spun around until he felt a paw on his head, meant to stop his disoriented movement.

"Oh...what happened? Where am I?" He asked as he looked around the room. He heard a few inaudible replies coming from the three dragons in front of him, all looking like a blur of blue, green and yellow, until they started coming into focus.

"Terrador? Cyril? Volteer?" Spyro asked as his eyes glanced at him up and down. "Where are we, what am I doing...what's going on?"

"All in good time young dragon. You just woke up...you're at the Temple." Terrador said with a grin, relieved to see Spyro and Cynder were finally awake. "Yes young dragon, you expelled quiet a bit of energy whenever you defeated Malefor, so it's only natural you'd feel a bit lightheaded." Volteer said.

"Cynder...where's Cynder?" Spyro asked, a bit of panic in his voice.

"Calm down...she's been right by your side the whole time...sleeping as you have." Terrador explained, as Spyro looked down to notice he was in his own bed...in the temple. His claws kneeded up and down on the hay, as if to check them to see if they were real.

"You mean...I-I've been dreaming? This whole time..." He asked.

As with Spyro, the world had been nothing but a blurry mess to the black dragoness that laid beside him. She woke up from her deep slumber only moments before Spyro, and she was the owner of the paw that kept his head from swaying as much as it was. The sight of the Guardians in front of them, along with the fact that they were suddenly in the Temple, was a bit of a shock to Cynder.

"Spyro...I'm here Spyro..." she said softly to the young purple dragon, her other paw setting itself down on his. "Terrador, what's been going on? We...defeated Malefor, then I remember Spyro and I flying through the Valley of Avalar. How could that all have been a dream? It all felt so real?"

The notion that what she experienced was simply a dream was really hard to believe. It felt like she was really there; like she could have just reached out and touched Spyro, but here she was with Spyro, and this certainly wasn't a dream.

"Cynder?" He looked over to see the dragoness of his dreams...literally. He couldn't help but smile. "You're...safe." He said slowly, as if he couldn't believe it himself.

"You two have been dreaming for a long time now...but make no mistake you two. You did defeat the dark master Malefor. But...you two gave every last thing you had to do it. It was a miracle you two are even still alive. Let alone speaking." Terrador replied to them both.

"Yes yes, I agree with them here. I take it you two must have entered a sort...of prolonged sleep from which we the dragon guardians actually shared some of our energy with you. We all did really and it was really quit a fascinating process to watch, why..."

"I don't think they need to know all of what we did to keep them here, Volteer. They just woke up...I'm sure they have many questions on what has been going on in the world since their...departure from it."

"But Terrador..the dream...I...it felt so real. After we went to the Valley of Avalar we were at Hunter's Village where we got our own house and lived there..." Spyro looked over at Cynder confused. 'Could it be...she? Dreamed the same things I did...is that why it felt so real?' Spyro asked himself in thought.

Cynder was relieved to hear they really did defeat Malefor; the thought that all their efforts were in vain would simply be too much for her to handle. But this news lifted a huge weight off her chest that felt like it had made itself a permanent home there. She really wanted to feel happy about this, and part of her did, but...the rest of her being felt another heavy weight pressing down on it.

"Don't worry Spyro, I'm safe. It'll take a lot more than that to keep me from coming back..." she responded with a small smile, then turned her head back towards the Guardians. "How long were...we asleep?"

"You were sleeping for quite some time, really." Cyril responded this time around. "You need not worry though, everything's been safe and quiet since Malefor's defeat."

Wait, Spyro...had the same dream has her? She couldn't believe that. She looked over at the purple dragon, her paw not once leaving his. "Spyro, it sounds like...you and I might have had the same dream." The whole idea sounded crazy to her, but she couldn't offer her own explanation.

The look in Spyro's eyes couldn't have been more confused. "A...A..."

"Synchronized dream? Oh how exciting! I haven't heard of something happening like that in ages. In fact yours is the first case I've heard since my days as a hatchling."

"Yes yes that is all very fascinating Volteer, but what does that exactly mean?" Cyril said, glaring at the yellow elder to just get to the point.

"Ahh yes that. The meaning, some say it only happens when two dragons are very...connected to one another. It happens mainly with two dragons who feel the other is in great distress, and the need to be with the one that makes them feel comfortable is so strong...they "reach" out for each other. Across dreams."

"And I saw this weird dragon. He was tall...like you Terrador, and big muscular. Long and teal colored. With a long black beard and horns that we're kind of like mine. And the end of his tail looked like...like a...like..."

"A dreamcatcher?" Volteer asked.

"Yes yes how did you..."

"That, Spyro...that is Devinicus...keeper of dreams. I saw him once as a young hatchling. He's a god sign, meant to bring good luck, and he is a rather good omen. But I assume since you two shared the same dream he appeared to both of you? Why...that is rather rare indeed." He said, a puzzled look on his face for once.

"Wow..." Spyro said blushing slightly at the thought. A thought of Cynder entered Spyro's mind...'_I love you_'. '_Did...she really? I...I don't know. Last thing I remember is the world caving in around me and...her..._'

"C-Cynder you...did you?" Spyro was at a loss for words, he didn't know how to ask. Not in front of all the Guardians, but he was curious if that was part of his dream or...if it really happened.

Hearing all this made Cynder's head spin. A synchronized dream? A dragon with a dreamcatcher on his tail? All this was a lot to take in, and she suddenly had a few questions on her mind, but no idea how to answer them. She knew the bond she and Spyro shared since they were even hatchlings, but...she never expected it to be THAT strong. But it was all true; in her times of need, she wanted to reach out to Spyro. She felt more comfortable around him than any dragon she ever knew in her life. But was she really trying to reach him through her very dreams?

The black dragoness rubbed her head with her other paw, her eyes closing as if she was in great thought, or trying to comprehend what the Guardians were telling them. "I...I think I might have seen a dragon like that. My mind is...so foggy and fuzzy..." When she was able to get her mind to focus, she glanced over at Spyro, her soft blue eyes meeting his dark purple ones.

"What is it, Spyro?" she asked, looking at him curiously with a slight tilt of her head. The same thought entered her mind at that moment, but she knew; she knew she had told him. 'I love you...' Her own words echoed through her head; they were so clear, so real...it wasn't possible they were just a figment of her dreams.

"I ugh...I..." Spyro was a bit flustered. Cyril, taking the hint, looked to the other two Guardians.

"Well I do believe it's time we let them be for a minute, we should give them some air. I mean they did just wake up after all. If you need us we'll be in the courtyard." Cyril said.

"But I...wanted to ask them about-"

Terrador gave Volteer a nudge. "Oh right right..." Volteer said as he left the room along with Cyril and Terrador. After they left, Spyro turned to Cynder.

"I, ugh...Cynder. I was just...what you said...back there? When I was using the last of my energy to put the world back together. Did..did you really say...what I think you said?"

The minute the Guardians left the two young dragons alone, Cynder turned all her attention to Spyro. She fully understood why he was flustered; this was all so much to take in, after all. At first, she didn't seem to understand what Spyro meant, but she quickly caught on, and her black-scaled face was a bit red with a soft blush.

"Spyro, I...you mean when I...said that I loved you?" the words were hard to get out; she loved Spyro with every fiber of her being, but it was hard to get them out when she was this close to the dragon she loved so much. "Did you think that was...just part of the dream?" she looked down at his paw, putting her other one on his. "I understand, but...I meant it, Spyro. I meant it with all my heart..." the whole time she said this her blush did not recede; it only grew.

This shocking revelation left Spyro speechless. "I..." He couldn't contain himself as he felt ready to burst. He didn't know how to express these feelings he had for her.

'_I-I've always loved you...from the moment I noticed you were innocent I wanted to save you...and from there...I only wanted you to feel like you always had someone to run to_.' "I...I love you too Cynder. I always have...from the moment I saved you...to...the moment you saved me. I've...always cared about..." He said blushing back, his eyes certainly not on her as he was too embarrassed to look her in her eyes. "You..." He finally managed to finish.

Cynder's pulse raced as she heard Spyro's confession. She stared into Spyro's eyes the whole time he spoke. In all honesty she hadn't expected him to so readily return the feelings she had for him. Her throat was dry, and she swallowed the lump building up in her throat.

'_You were the only one who cared for me, Spyro...I don't know where I would be if you hadn't saved me. I just might be dead if it hadn't been for you_...' she thought these words before she spoke up. "Spyro...you were the only one who gave me a chance. You saved me, you let me live...you're my savior, Spyro." she slowly placed a paw under his snout and gently lifted it up so she could look into her eyes as she said this.

Unlike Spyro, she wasn't embarrassed enough to say the things that she meant to him. "I love you Spyro, and I mean that...I've never stopped caring about you, and I never will."

"Cynder...I-I'm not your savior..." He said as he looked into her eyes. "We saved each other..." He said as he wrapped his front paws around her neck, embracing her in a gentle but tight hug.

"You were there for me when Ignitus gave his life for us...I could've hurt you..." He said as he remembered when he almost lost control. Convexity welling within him, his anger...his rage...for being powerless to help the one dragon who felt like a father to him since he left home.

"You stood by my side...through it all." He added as he nuzzled her. "I'm having a hard time figuring out our last moments...here. Then our dream but...if what we went through was real...I-I...ugh..." His whole face was crimson at this point.

Cynder's blush deepened even further, the red tint standing out very clearly against her dark scales. Gently, she slid her front paws around him in return, pressing her snout against his shoulder as she pulled Spyro closer to her.

"Spyro...I know you'd never hurt me...I know you better than that." she remembered it clearly...the rage that filled him, the anger at being unable to save Ignitus...that dark form he took at the Well of Souls three years earlier... "No matter what happens, I'll always be here for you Spyro...I'll never leave you no matter what happens..."

After she spoke, she returned the soft nuzzling without even realizing it; it was automatic, like she'd been doing it for so long...and that made her flush even more. "I know Spyro, I'm having a hard time understanding all this too...but something tells me it was all real. I can just...feel it..." she said softly, pulling away from his shoulder to look into his eyes. She saw nothing but the heroic, gentle dragon beside her.

Spyro's purple eyes were shining bright looked into her eyes as well, seeing nothing of the evil that had once been present in her eyes from the day he met her had long since been cleansed from her soul, and he saw nothing but the best in Cynder. He always had. Even when everyone else doubted her. he never did. He smiled brightly at her. "I-I...believe it too. With all my heart Cynder..." He said as he placed his paw on her shoulder.

Cynder closed her eyes and did her best to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes. She was a strong girl, and was able to do so; she didn't want Spyro to be concerned about her. Right now he didn't need to be, as everything was fine just the way they were. The black dragoness felt her insides warm up just a bit when she felt his paw on her shoulder and she blushed a little, looked at it, then back at him with a smile on her face.

"I think it's time we figure out what's been happening...since we've been asleep." He said a gentle serious in his eyes. "I mean who knows what happened to our friends while we've been gone..." Spyro said, a sense of concern laced his voice.

"Yes, Spyro...I think we need to do that to..." she nodded her head, her eyes showing a bit of the same. "I can imagine...quite a bit has changed..." she said, looking up at the ceiling. It appeared to be fairly dark outside, which obviously meant it was nighttime.

Spyro noticed this as well. "It appears we woke up at the wrong time. It's a beautiful night...just like you. I think we shouldn't waste it, Cynder. I feel like I want to go outside and stretch my wings. See the world...see my friends. What about you?" Spyro asked.

Cynder blushed deeply at his words and looked away in trying to hide it, but failed rather miserably. "Well...that really sounds like a great idea, Spyro. My wings are feeling rather...stiff. Think you'd like to go flying with me?" Cynder asked him, getting herself a little closer to Spyro as she smiled softly at the young purple dragon.

"Would I?" Spyro asked, as he pretended to think on it, to tease her about it. He placed his paw up under his chin, stroking it to add to the effect. "Let me think about it..."

After a few tense moments he said "Of course I would Cynder." He said, chuckling heartily. He stood up and and stretched his body, while simultaneously stretching his wings.

Cynder blinked and looked at him worriedly, taking his teasing seriously for a minute. Was he actually...considering doing it or not? But then when it was obvious he was fooling around with her, Cynder smiled and playfully slapped him on his shoulder with a forepaw.

"Spyro don't do that to me!" the black dragoness giggled, smiling at him. "I figured you couldn't say no to me." Cynder got to her feet and stretched her beautiful black wings along with the rest of her body, stretching her front legs against the bed. She wasn't very surprised at how stiff she was; she had slept for several months after all.

Spyro playfully rubbed his arm as if he had been hurt. "Oww..." He chuckled playfully looking back up at her. "Saying no to you? Cynder I saw what you did to Malefor's goons firsthand I'm not about to upset you." He looked down and back up at the ceiling and around the room. "So...it was all a dream, then?" He asked Cynder. "Those...years and years of us...a dream?" It was still hard for him to wrap his head around it. His body cracked and creaked this way and that with every new stretch of his body.

Cynder looked at him, then down at her paws. "I don't know Spyro...I'd like to think that we weren't asleep for that long..." she said nervously. She hadn't really kept track of how long it was in their dreams, but it did feel like a long time. "The Guardians said that we were out of a long time, but...was it really that long? You don't look any different from...the dragon I fell in love with." she said with a soft smile.

Sighing, Cynder got off the bed and slowly took a few steps towards the center of the room. Now that she was taking in the sights and sounds of the temple and the outside world around them, it felt like it had been so many years since she last saw her birthplace. After all, she had last seen it after she ran away from it. A decision that she still regretted to this day...

Spyro couldn't help but smile awkwardly a bit at the smile she gave him. "It is a lot to take in, but I'm sure we'll figure this out. This isn't the first time we've woken up to a world completely changed..." Spyro said, remembering that they were in fact trapped in Crystal for three years, before waking up to find Malefor had almost won. Only with Cynder's help was he able to beat Malefor...he wouldn't forget that.

Cynder sat down and another very soft sigh escaped her muzzle. "Yeah, it isn't...and who's to say it won't be the last?" she giggled a little, sighing and looking across the room after taking in a slow, deep breath to calm her nerves.

"Cynder...are you alright?" Spyro asked, his purple eyes looking over Cynder in concern as he noticed Cynder looked uncomfortable.

It took Cynder a moment to respond but she looked up at Spyro, then nodded. "I'm fine Spyro, just...trying to catch my breath..." she said, then drew in another slow and deep breath.

"Okay Cynder." Spyro said as he careful walked over and nuzzled her in order to calm her down some more, or so he hoped. "Everything is going to be alright Cynder. I promise." He said as he smiled warmly at her, before motioning her to follow as he walked over to the doorway, leading into the old training room. "Wow...last time I saw this place it was a wreck..." Spyro's eyes gazed in wonder at the place he first learned how to master the elements with Ignitus, Volteer and Terrador those many years ago, the anceint dragon statue standing guard in the center of the tall chamber.

The dragoness stood up and went over to Spyro, sitting down next to him and looking in at the training room. She never had the opportunity to train here with any of the Guardians; at the time she felt that she never deserved it, along with the fact that she had no skills in the Elements of Fire, Ice, Electricity, or Earth.

"It's been a while since we've been here..." Cynder said softly as she slid past Spyro and into the training room, her footsteps lightly echoing through the chamber. Slowly, her gaze focused itself on the statue. Part of her wondered who that statue was supposed to be of. More than likely it might have been one of the Ancestors; the temple was really ancient, after all.

"Yeah...yeah it has Cynder. But we're finally home. We finally have a place to call home..." He smiled gently back at her as he walked around the familiar statue, oddly enough also wondering who it was. Spyro's own footsteps echoed throughout the empty temple.

Cynder smiled and followed after Spyro through the training room, giving the ancient statue one last look before they departed. She looked back and forth between all the walls of the old temple, taking in all the sights of the only place that she could ever call home; and there simply wasn't a better place to do so.

The two young dragons spent some time looking around the parts of the temple that were heavily covered in plants, vines, and nearly overtaken by nature. The foliage seemed to have gotten a bit thicker the last time Spyro saw it, but it still retained that old, mixed smell of dead and fresh plant life that reminded Spyro of the sights and smells of when he first stumbled upon the temple. Soon enough, their trek through the temple took them to a quite familiar and favorite place: the large balcony.

The two dragons quietly stepped outside of the confines of the ruined temple and looked around the open area surrounding the temple grounds. It had been cleaned up since the last attack it suffered, and other than a few crumbled stones here and there, it looked relatively untouched. Cynder smiled at the sight of the view that surrounded them. The wind was blowing quietly past the them, and the silence was soothing after all they had been through over the years.

Cynder smiled at Spyro, putting a paw on his back between the base of his wings. "I bet it brings back a lot of memories, huh Spyro?" she smiled softly at the dragon.

At hearing her question Spyro inhaled and slowly exhaled. The memories he had of this temple were great, but some were really hard to pull up from the back of his mind. "Yeah...yeah it does. I have a lot of memories here. Not just about Ignitus, but everyone...it was were I first learned how to fly, how to use the other elements. How to fight...this place...well. Holds a lot of meaning for me. Not just to me...but for every dragon that is still left out there..." He said as he looked back at Cynder.

Cynder pursed her lips together and nodded her head softly, sitting beside Spyro rubbing his back comfortingly. .Although she didn't fully understand all of what he was going through, she knew it must've been hard on Spyro.

"Spyro...I'm still really sorry about Ignitus, you know that right?" she said softly, looking at him as she spoke. She looked up at the night sky then, leaning against Spyro a little. "Spyro, do you think Ignitus is out there somewhere...watching over us, protecting us?"

She remembered what Ignitus said about when a dragon dies, he isn't truly gone...Ignitus was there with them during the last hours of their battle. She could feel his presence, even though it was clear that the fire Guardian had truly passed on from their world.

"I know you are..." He said as a small tear left his eye, before looking back into the night sky, not with a look sadness, but determination. "I firmly believe that Ignitus is watching over us, protecting us just like the Ancestors. I know he is looking down us now, and is smiling at our achievements...we did it Cynder. We saved the world from the Dark Master." He said with a grin. "I don't think Ignitus wanted anything more then that...I can be happy knowing he is proud of what I've...no...what we've become today."

"Spyro, I couldn't have said that any better myself..." Cynder smiled, truly touched by what Spyro said. She too believed that Ignitus, and all the other Guardians for that matter, were proud of what they were able to accomplish at such a young age. Surely no other young dragon could say that they defeated and stopped a great evil from destroying the world. She was proud of how strong Spyro had become. No, how strong _they _became.

"Let's hope he's watching over us now." Cynder then took a few steps away from him and spread her wings out, the dark pink undersides reflecting some of the moonlight that shined down on them. "I'm ready, Spyro. It'll feel so nice to fly again..." she smiled, getting really excited at the thought of being able to fly through the sky again.

Spyro did much the same, stretching out his wings, blushing at how beautiful the moonlight looked on her body. "Ugh..." Spyro coughed as discretely as he could. "Sure Cynder. No problem." A huge blush came across his face as he realized he was staring for a second before going back to stretching his wings for a few quick moments. "Then let's go." He said as he ran and jumped off the balcony, before flying off into the night sky.

Cynder simply shook her head as she followed after Spyro. '_Heh, I bet you got a really good look didn't you Spyro? _'

A smile spread across her face as she followed the dragon of her dreams into the darkness of night.

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R&R if you enjoyed, and get ready for more soon!


	2. Wish Upon A Star

Spyro and Cynder continued to fly as the night went on. The full moon began to descend westward in the sky, but still hung high in the sky, the temple having disappeared from sight a long time ago. The mountain pass and jagged rocks below them were not very stimulating sights, so to pass the time, Cynder suggested they play a game.

Flapping her wings hard, Cynder was able to outrun Spyro for quite a ways but he quickly caught up to her. A grin on his face, Spyro was so close he could just reach out and nip at her tail if he wanted to. She couldn't outrun him forever.

"Tag you're it!" Spyro called playfully as he rushed by Cynder, the tip of his tail just touching her paw as he chuckled, turning around to face her in mid-flight as he playfully stuck his tongue out, saying "Can't catch me, Cynder." Before quickly turning right side up and flying off into the night.

"Hey! Come back here Spyro!" Cynder called back to Spyro, beating her wings against the breeze as she chased after him.

"And what if I don't?" He called back playfully, giggling as he flew passed the jagged rocks.

"Oh, I'm gonna get you Spyro!" she called playfully to the purple dragon, starting to catch up with the other dragon pretty quickly.

"Not if I can help it Cynder." Spyro said as he beat his wings as fast as he could. He knew it wouldn't be long until she would catch up with him, and he'd be 'it'. He suddenly slowed down as he heard the sound of water running downstream below them.

"Cynder, do you hear that?" Spyro said as he looked down, gazing at the iconic waterfall of Twilight Falls. "Wow, Twilight Falls…. doesn't that bring you back, huh Cynder?" He said as he looked back over his shoulder at her, a grin on his face.

Seeing that Spyro was slowing down Cynder tried to slow herself down quickly, but only ended up letting out a loud cry of surprise as she went tumbling in the air. "W-Whoa!" she cried out, barely crashing into Spyro.

"Owwww..." Spyro said as he rubbed the back of his head with his paw. "Yeah...yeah were here Cynder." He said as he chuckled a bit in a smidge of discomforting pain.

Cynder rubbed her head with her paw and shook the daze from her senses. "Spyro, why'd you stop?" she asked, lightly growling at him before she heard the stream below them. Twilight Falls. The sheer beauty of the forest that bordered the barren mountain range they had flown over was...simply breathtaking. Cynder remembered back when she and Spyro emerged from the catacombs, and first saw this forest; and she felt the same sense of inner peace as when she saw this place for the first time.

"Spyro...we're here. Twilight Falls..." Cynder muttered more out-loud than anything. She hovered ahead of Spyro, and let out a slow and deep sigh as her eyes took in the beautiful sights of the forest in front of her. The trees, the streams, and the waterfall...they way they reflected the light of the moon was so otherworldly...

"Twilight Falls." Spyro said as he remembered the first time he entered these caves with Cynder at his side. Back then there really wasn't much of a choice as they were bound together by the shackles of Malefor's magic. But here, being with Cynder, of his own choice now rather than of forced cooperation...made this occasion seem a bit more special now that he had time to actual take in the beautiful sights and sounds of the forest.

"I never realized how beautiful this place was. Last time we were here, we was a bit...preoccupied with Malefor's minions. We never really got to enjoy how beautiful this place actually is and now that the Dark Master is gone this place looks a lot more peaceful compared to last time."

Cynder looked over at the purple dragon and smiled at him, sighing softly as she gently flapped her wings to keep herself airborne. "Spyro...being here with you now...is so much more than I could ask for right now..." she said softly as she got close enough to Spyro without their wings hitting each other. Her eyes stayed on Spyro for quite some time as a blush appeared on her cheeks. Although she knew she was staring, she couldn't take her eyes off him as she found herself completely unable to at this moment...

"Yeah...I, ugh...I know what you mean Cynder." Spyro said as he looked over at her, noticing how she was staring at him. "Something wrong Cynder?" He asked knowing the question would embarrass her as he lightly flapped his wings to stay aloft in the sky, the moonlight casting a beautiful silver glaze of light on his scales as he moved through the air.

Cynder snapped out of her trance by his question and shook her head, her flush getting deeper and burning on her face. "Yeah, sorry Spyro. I'm just fine." she said in a soft voice, looking down at the calm waters below them. "Well...want to head down there for a bit before moving on to the Valley of Avalar?" she asked with a small smile. She found herself staring at Spyro again as she was quickly mesmerized by the way his purple scales reflected the light of the night sky that way. It made Spyro look very, well...stunning; perfect for a purple dragon as magnificent as Spyro.

"Yeah, I think we'd both like to enjoy the scenery a bit before going over to see how Hunter and his clan is doing." Spyro replied as he slowly made his descent down to earth, hovering a bit before landing on his paws. They near the middle of the forest now close by the old cliff he helped tackle along with Cynder. Now of course, they could just fly up on top, but due to restraints of the collars they were wearing at the time they couldn't. The few old mossy holds from where Spyro and Cynder climbed it before were still there, jutting out from the surface.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Spyro asked.

Cynder couldn't forget that cliff; it had been such a laborious task to get up there. It was amazing how Hunter was able to leap these tall cliffs and deep chasms in a single bound, yet it took the joint effort of the two dragons just to scale the very cliff they were looking at. Without those collars to keep them restrained they could easily fly up there. Cynder sat down beside Spyro and looked over at him, her lips curling up in a slight smile.

"Well...that depends on what you're thinking, Spyro." she responded with a slight smirk.

Spyro looked over at Cynder and softly, before spreading his wings and taking to the air, easily reaching the top of the cliff. He landed as softly as a feather and he looked down at Cynder, patting the spot next to her as if to ask her to join right beside him as looked up the stars. "This is definitely one beautiful night. It's time like these you just want to sit back and enjoy them, with someone you really care about." He said looking at the moon.

"I guess it's kind of silly to stargaze...but...well. It's been so long since I've looked at the stars. Ancestors, it feels like ages." He said sighing in content.

Happily obliging Cynder flew up and landed on the soft grass beside him, fidgeting in her spot beside Spyro. She felt a little nervous about something, but shrugged it off. She was with Spyro, what was there to be nervous about?

"Spyro...this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen..." she spoke softly, just absorbing the cool wind that blew against her dark scales. She closed her eyes for a second to take in the sounds of the chirping crickets, the blowing of the breeze around them, and even her own heart beating steadily in her chest.

Cynder looked up at the stars, the starlight reflecting in her eyes the same way her scales reflected the soft moonlight. "I've never been stargazing before, Spyro...I've never had the time...or been able to...see how beautiful they are." Cynder's tail slowly swayed against the ground and touched Spyro's for a second before moving away. Right now, nothing could ruin the moment she shared with Spyro.

"I know...we've always been in battle. Never resting, always fighting the good fight for those of us who couldn't or can't. And now...now we can finally enjoy it, like it was truly meant to be." Spyro smiled softly, a sort of twinkle in his eye that wasn't there before his fight against the Dark Master. His tail recoiled softly a bit before he blushed softly, as he felt her tail touch his slightly. Going ever so slowly, he shyly tried scooting a bit closer, and his tail slowly reached out for hers, the tip of his tail wrapping around the base of her tailblade.

"Yeah...nothing beats how beautiful this moment is..." He added.

Cynder blushed deeply and looked back to see his tail wrapping around the tip of hers. The dragoness smiled and wrapped her tail tip around his in return, looking up at Spyro and winking at him. "That feels nice, Spyro..." she said with a soft purr radiating from her throat, scooting a bit closer to him. She looked down at his paw for a few moments before she gently put her own down on top of it, lightly rubbing the top of his paw.

"Nothing, Spyro...nothing..." her voice died down to a soft whisper, her eyes facing down while she continued to stroke, her paw very soft.

"See that star...that big bright blue one that stands out among the background...bigger then the other stars. You see it Cynder? I think that's Ignitus, looking down on us now." He said, blushing.

Cynder looked up at the star and couldn't help but giggle, leaning against Spyro's side. "I'd like to think that, Spyro...and I think you're right..." Cynder looked up at the star in the sky, and suddenly felt as though Ignitus was actually there with them, encasing their smaller bodies with his large, warm wingspan, the same way he protected them from the flames in the Burned Lands...Ignitus was their guardian now. She had heard tales of wishing upon a star, but never actually had anything she wanted to wish for but she decided now was the time, if any...to wish upon a star. She knew now the one thing she wanted and silently, and solemnly looked up at Ignitus's star, a gleaming bit of hope in her eye.

"_All my life I've been seen as this_..._wicked_..._evil terrible dragoness for the sins of my past. I just wish I could live in a world where I don't have to worry about others judging me for what I've done, but rather_..._who I am now._" She thought as the bright star hung above them.

She closed her eyes, making the wish with all her might.

Spyro murred a bit as he leaned into Cynder, feeling the same warmth she was, welling up within him. His eyes gazed at the star as if a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment had happened all at once, and now that he was all alone with Cynder. With nothing but the sounds of the close by running stream calming him down, nothing could have made him happier.

He sighed as his eyes looked away and towards Cynder. "As much as I'd love to spend the rest of the night stargazing with you Cynder...I think we have a certain feline friend of ours we owe a visit to."

Cynder blushed at the sound of his murring, nuzzling her head against his side. "I think Hunter would be happy to see us too..." she said, smiling and pulling away from him. "Do you think he's still up?" she asked as she went up to the ledge of the small cliff and flapping her wings a few times, making sure to stretch the muscles in them. "Ugh...my wings still feel a little stiff..." she groaned softly in slight discomfort.

"I think it'll just get better as time goes on." Spyro said as he was right beside her, stretching his wings much the same. "You ready?" He asked.

Cynder nodded and smiled, sighing softly in sweet relief as she managed to get the muscles in her wings to relax. "Mmmm, yeah Spyro. I'm ready..." she smiled, standing at the very edge of the cliff and looking back at him.

Spyro jumped off ledge, flapping his wings as he flew into the night, towards Avalar, where Hunter and all the good folk of Avalar awaited. Cynder leapt off the cliff and followed after Spyro, and the village soon came into view below them.

Cynder could see the smoke rising from the small enclosed village. They weren't too far away from where the small tribe of cheetah lived, and by the looks of it, they were in the process of rebuilding the homes that were destroyed in the attack that convinced the chief to trust them, and even Hunter.

"Hey Spyro...I think everyone's asleep." she said after noticing that the lack of active villagers.

"I think you may be right Cynder. Let's go find out." Spyro said, seeing the smoke in the distance, and as the village kept getting closer and closer...he could see the orange glow of the aftermath produced by the many small fires from the previous outing. It looked like all the villagers there had went in to sleep for the night, except for the guard standing outside the gate, but they paid them no mind as they were busy looking for threats coming from the nearby river or from the forest.

Cynder flew over the village and landed softly on the dirt, looking around the village. For the most part it looked completely unchanged, just the way they left it so many months ago. The destroyed homes were almost completely rebuilt; it was nice to see they were making a lot of progress restoring the village to its original glory.

"It's really quiet here tonight..." The black dragoness said softly, not wanting to wake anyone up by talking too loudly. "Yeah, it looks like everyone's sleeping."

Spyro landed softly beside her as he looked around, noting their progress. "Wow, they sure have been busy since we've been...gone." Spyro said in a soft but awestruck tone as well. His eyes looked around the village in wonder as his feet kept moving slowly, as if he was a bit amazed at the progress they had done in their absence.

"We've really been out for a long time...haven't we?" He asked.

Cynder followed behind him, inhaling and exhaling softly as she came up next to him, looking at Spyro for a minute before continuing to look around, really amazed by how much work had been done.

"That we have, Spyro...that we have." she said as she felt the warm earth beneath her paws, digging her claws in to get a better feel at the dirt upon which the village was constructed. "Spyro, do you wonder if...anyone thinks we're dead?" she asked, looking at him. The thought worried her a bit, but she couldn't blame anyone for thinking they perished in the battle.

"I don't know Cynder..." Spyro said as he paw hit something hard. "Huh..." Spyro looked down to see some flowers and an odd wooden block with their figures carved in them, Spyro on the left, and Cynder on the right, their tail enclosing each other to make themselves the border of the words in the middle. Cynder blinked several times at the sight of the carving. Was that supposed to be them? She looked more closely at it, and there was no denying it; that certainly was a carving of her and Spyro. The details carved into the wood were remarkable. With the two of them gone at the time the cheetahs had to pull their appearance and features from memory, which made it even more amazing.

"Hello...what's this? Cynder do you...do you remember this being here?" Spyro said as he looked down at it, wondering what it said.

"No, no I don't Spyro..." she said as she walked up beside him, looking down at the words carved into the wood. "What does it say, Spyro?"

"Here lies the very spot where two dragons entered not only into our village, but into the hearts of all who live in the Valley of Avalar. This is to the two dragons named Spyro and Cynder, both of whom without their help our way of life would have all but been a distant memory in the wake of the attack on our village. They saved not only our humble village, but the world at large. We are eternally thankful for all they've done for us and we will always remember their valiant sacrifice was not in vain. Thank you, and may the Ancestors watch over you both...wherever you are."

Spyro choked up a bit as he read the words. "Wow...I...I had no idea." Spyro said, wiping away a tear from his eye.

Cynder stared down at the words for several silent moments before she closed her eyes. The wood statue was a memorial to them, paying respect to their memory. She had never expected this; such honor given to them by the tribe, and how close they were held to the hearts of their friends. Cynder's heart was beating rapidly against her chest and she couldn't stop the tears from trickling down her face.

"They...they never forgot us..." Cynder's voice was shaky. She sniffed back her tears and pierced the dirt with her claws again to help control her emotions. "Spyro...I...I-I can't even..." she managed to get out, unable to find the words to describe how much this wrenched at her heart.

She couldn't believe it; her wish had actually come true.

"I know..." Spyro said as tears trickled down his muzzle as well as his tail came up to greet Cynder's cheek. Spyro to felt a tug at his heart at just how touching this was. He had no idea he meant so much to his friends. It was a lot to take in and digest, but overall, Spyro had a smile on his face."I honestly don't know what to say..." Spyro said, looking at the memorial to them in simple awe.

Cynder blushed at the feel of his tail on her cheek and smiled at Spyro, wiping her paw across her face and sniffing once more. She never pictured this happening in her life. but she finally did it. It was the most touching thing she ever saw. Her life had always been filled with darkness, forever to serve the Dark Master and the sick, terrible vision he had for the world, but thanks to Spyro all that was gone. Not only that, but this testament to their greatness...finally proved that her wish had come true. She no longer had to worry for fear of being looked upon at the terror of the skies or being seen as some great evil. She was finally seen...as a hero. Not just to Spyro. But to everyone else too. For once in her life she had friends that she cared for and that cared for her greatly. She looked at the carved words and set her paw on it, feeling the grooves made in the wood to create these touching words.

"We need to repay them...somehow..." she said softly as her tail rubbed up against Spyro's.

"I think we should. I think they deserve to know...that we aren't exactly dead yet." Spyro said smiling, as he placed his paw on the structure and closed his eyes. "Follow my lead..." He tried to concentrate.

Cynder agreed wholeheartedly, and, following his lead, she placed her paw right next to his and closed her eyes.

"What are we doing, Spyro?" she asked. Despite not knowing what he wanted to do, something inside to her to concentrate. She did so, focusing on the wooden statue. She didn't know how, but something told her she knew what Spyro was going to do.

"We are going to light up their world...and give them hope." He said as he reached deep into himself, and found the power he had used first to stop Cynder when she was corrupted by Malefor. That same power that had even fueled Malefor and his evil reign, the same blood that gave him the ability to stop time. The power of the purple dragon...only came once ever so many generations. They would know...and starting from his paw, the lines in the memorial started to glow, like a river it trickling down to every last crevice in the wood until all the monument glowed with a bright purple sheen.

Cynder knew now. She knew what Spyro wanted. Calling up the elements that she controlled, the black-scaled dragoness pressed her paw hard on the wood as she focused her power on the statue. Her own power, once coming from Dark Master himself, used to be sign of his control over her. The darkness within her used to influence her, change her in ways that made her seem not like herself. She shuddered at the thought of remembering of how she was when she first met Spyro she was nothing but a pawn. Now that very same power didn't frighten her anymore. The same power of darkness that used to cause her so much pain, was now all but her to command. It was a sign of her own will and power, rather then Malefor's. She did not possess such power that Spyro had, but she was just as strong as the purple dragon. Her paw quivered in place as dark black lines - the color of shadow - slithered up into the lines of the wood just like Spyro's. Her side of the memorial, the carving of Cynder herself, the once-dull wooden monument now radiated a soft, blackish grey, greatly complimenting Spyro's purple side.

"Yeah...it's beautiful isn't it?" Spyro said as he stepped back, admiring their work. He had to admit it to himself, he didn't think it would work at first, but looking at it...it was a sight to behold. Spyro noticed the moon was hiding behind the clouds, further and further away from them.

"It's...it's magnificent, Spyro..." Cynder smiled, sitting back as she gazed up at the statue. She wondered if Spyro knew what he was doing or if it would work, but she just smiled.

Spyro smiled softly as he looked back at Cynder "I think we should visit Warfang next.. afterall, last I remember it was the hardest hit during the war against the Dark Master..." Spyro said.

"Good idea, Spyro...I hope Warfang's gotten better over the months..." she said softly as she looked up at the moon. "It looks like it'll be morning soon, so we should get going Spyro..."

Once everything was said and done Spyro and Cynder lifted themselves into the air and flew away from the peaceful village. Their next stop: The Dragon City, Warfang.

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	3. Love and War are Won in Warfang

Spyro and Cynder continued to fly in the dwindling hours of the morning. Cynder looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. The air was crisp, but still bore the taste of soot from the nasty war with Malefor's forces. She could still remember that day clearly. They were able to save the city, but on the inside part of her felt they almost failed because of how destroyed the city was. It would be amazing if they were able to restore the city to how it was. Neither of them knew what the city looked like before the war...

The flight to the Dragon Capital seemed to take forever, but soon enough they reached the outskirts of the vast city. "Spyro...there it is! Warfang!" she shouted, her wings flapping harder.

The city stood tall, in all its remaining glory. The crumbled gold-colored stone walls still stood, not deterred by the assault of the Dark Master's army; even under such constant abuse that threatened to reduce them to rubble, they continued to protect the city like the moles who defended their home. Beyond the walls the remaining towers that were untouched were...magnificent. She stared at the city with awe. Just like the Twilight Falls, Cynder hadn't been able to appreciate the elegance of the city's construction, and she stopped flying to hover above the war-torn earth to take it all in...

"Cynder why did you..." Spyro said as he hovered beside Cynder, wondering why she stopped. Only to be left breathless at the sight of the dragon capital. It had beaten, battered, almost breached against the almost overwhelming assault by Malefor's forces. Scorch marks from the huge balls of fire catapulted towards the city still stained the walled. Spyro felt his gut wrench at the sight. "Come on Cynder..." Spyro said as his heartbeat picked up faster and faster due to the anxiety in his chest.

"If it looks this way on the outside..." Spyro hated to guess what life was like for the moles whose ancestors helped build the biggest monument to dragonkind...the city itself.

Cynder nodded and swallowed, her own heartbeat starting to race. "The city...doesn't look like it's really recovered..." he black dragoness said softly as they neared the city.

She felt something tug at her insides. If they hadn't been asleep for those three years...would they have stopped Malefor from returning? Could they have prevented the destruction of Warfang, or even keep the city from as much destruction as it had faced? What if they never woke up?

Cynder shook her head. She didn't want to think about such things. As they neared the large gates of the city, Cynder remained silent. This city held a lot of memories of that day...

Spyro looked on in much surprise as the gates started to open, further and further. "I know..." Spyro said grimly as he looked on. As they both flew nearer and nearer to the gate they noticed something odd. A small crack of light shone though, and gradually got bigger and bigger...the gate was opening, just what they needed.

"Hurry, before they close the gate!" Spyro rushed in, flying as hard as he could to reach the door, while entering noticing one mole dragging a cart behind him entering the city. Spyro only nodded at him, his way of saying thank you to the unsuspecting mole who would never realize he helped Spyro and Cynder even enter the city.

Deciding to land in the middle of the town, Spyro gazed in wonder as it seemed some of the rubble and debris had been picked up from the fair city. Many of the tall towers that dotted the landscape still seemed in dire need of repair. "Wow..." Spyro stated, looking all around.

"Spyro...this city is...wow..." she said softly, looking down at the stone that made up the floor of the city.

She scraped her claws against the etched stone. Even something as simple as this had a lot of work put into it. The moles of old put so much time and effort to make this beautiful masterpiece of a city, and in a single day it was nearly reduced to a pile of stone and ash. Cynder gave a slow and very soft sigh, looking up to see that lining the streets around them, there many moles that were left homeless, no doubt having lost their homes to the very Golem that hoped to destroy them. Seeing these moles wandering around - some of them rather aimlessly - didn't help Cynder feel any better about the aftermath of Warfang's long, harsh battle. Several moles were huddled under the awnings in the middle of silent conversations topics unknown to Spyro and Cynder. Others were simply relaxing in the cool air of the early morning hours. Moles went back and forth between this part of the city, loitering around the entrance of the city, some helping with the reconstruction of the city, while a few of the poor souls were just standing around like they didn't know what to do...

Cynder also noticed one of the mole children playing on what used to be one of the big towers within the city walls. She looked up, wanting to imagine what it looked like in it's prime...before the war. She began looking around around at the ruined buildings and spires that towered over them. She felt so small compared to the towers; like a newborn hatchling standing helpless before the biggest dragon in the realm. The way the towers stood, it seemed like they would crumble to nothing and collapse onto the city grounds.

If she closed her eyes, she could still vividly remember the large Golem that laid waste to the city. The dragoness winced and lowered her head. The Golem had come for them...it wanted to destroy them, and the city was only in its way...

Some were even begging, injured. Many of them were wearing bandages of some kind. It seemed the toll the Golem took on the fair city was a heavy one indeed. Spyro looked down and over at Cynder as if silently asking the same thing that was probably on her mind...wondering if they could have done something different to prevent such suffering. Thankfully most of the homeless were asleep at the time but some gawked at the image of Spyro and Cynder, pointing them out to loved ones. But they didn't approach. It seemed to put an odd...smile on their face. Spyro halfheartedly smiled at a kid who was tugging on their dad's shirt.

Spyro then turned his attention to a certain scorched building to the right...where he could still remember visibly seeing the moles they saved screaming as they exited that burning building with reckless abandon.

'_ "AGGHHHHH! Ancestors help us!" They screamed as not only their armor but their fur were set one fire, even ones goggles were melting onto his face as they ran around after Spyro had put them out with his ice breath_.'

He shivered at the memory. "I know Cynder...I know." He said as he sighed looking back over to the reservoir they had to fill with water to put that very fire out.

Cynder closed her eyes and looked down, shaking her head slowly. She could remember that as well...

_'Rushing to put out the fire, going back and forth between the burning building and the reservoir, filling and emptying the buckets. She was so afraid that they wouldn't be able to extinguish the fire in time and the moles would burn alive in one of their own homes.'_

She winced and looked at the building, a feeling of guilt suddenly taking the dragoness. She knew they shouldn't take blame; she and Spyro didn't start the fires, but they weren't fast enough to get the moles out unscathed...

One of the many residents in the city was gathering water from said reservoir, and filling up a bucket of water when he heard the voices.

"Spyro, Cynder is that you?" He called out in hope, looking around, wondering where they were, as if stumbling around lost. His nose and muzzle had severe burns on it. as well as the mustache he had once sported, had been completely singed. He wore a black robe, to keep other from seeing how badly burned he really was from that day.

Cynder looked up to see the mole that had called out to them. "Spyro...I think...he heard us." she said softly, taking a slow step towards the mole. "We're over here!" she responded, glad someone recognized them, but she winced when she saw the burns on his face.

The mole named Malfred took a few steps forward, his paws played out in front of him as he reached out blindly for one of them, only reacting to their voice and not much else. "C-Cynder, Spyro?" He asked.

"We're right here!" Spyro said, waving a paw as if t signal where he was...but then it occurred to him as soon as the mole reached Cynder and began touching her muzzle, getting uncomfortably close.

"Y-You're Cynder...?" He said as a few tears struck his eyes as he wrapped his hands around her neck.

Cynder blinked and blushed in embarrassment when he touched her muzzle. The dragoness smiled a little when he suddenly hugged her, which was pretty unexpected as she had not yet recognized the mole.

"Umm..." she said softly as she gently putting a paw around him to return the hug, looking over at Spyro, a little confused by the sudden gesture.

"Thank the Ancestors for this day! I have waited so long to tell you something...but I had feared you had fallen in the battle of the Dark Master. But you are here, you two are finally here..." He cried, tears streaming his down his face. "Oh where are my manners..." He said as he released Cynder and stood at attention. "Malfred of the 2nd battalion at your service!" He said as he gave a salute...only to sadly put it back down. "Or was...until I got discharged. You...you two save my life..."

"It's you...I remember you." Spyro said, how could he ever forget the look on his face. He was one of the ones they saved at the burning building that day.

Cynder stood next to Spyro and sat down beside him. For a minute...she thought she recognized the mole. With a tilt of her head, the female thought for a minute before it finally clicked.

"I...I remember you now." Cynder spoke up after she finally recognized the mole that stood in front of them. "We saved you from the burning building." Cynder felt bad about the burns that the former soldier had suffered, but there wasn't anything she could do about it at this point.

"Y-You're blind...aren't you?" Spyro asked.

"Like a bat..." Malfred replied. He could sense something was off.

Cynder's wings drooped when she heard that. Great, something else she felt really bad about. She tried to shrug it off for now as she gave a light sigh.

'_Don't do this to yourself Cynder_.' She thought to herself, growling in her mind. '_It's not your fault...it's not your fault_.'

"No no, don't feel bad...for me. I'd gladly do it again in the service." He said, giving a smile. "But now is not the time to feel bad...I have something I want to show you two...it's not too far from here." He said as he left the bucket there, if only to have them walk over to an open hall down to the right of them. "You know where the bucket storage is?" He asked Spyro and Cynder.

Spyro and Cynder followed after the blind mole. The dragoness looked to either side of her to take in the sights of the architecture which she was not able to do her first visit to Warfang. There was something really overwhelming about walking through this huge city...

"You mean that area where we got the buckets? Near those stairs that lead up towards the wall?" Spyro asked.

"That very one..."He said as they turned the corner towards it.

"I remember that..." Cynder said with a nod of her head. Now she was getting really curious about what the mole wanted to show them.

"It's over here..." He said softly. as he turned the corner again to enter the very place he was talking about and to the right on the side. next to the massive pile of buckets...were headstones. Row by row and column by column. Each one nameless.

"These poor souls died protecting this place...I was one of the lucky ones." Malfred said.

Spyro, however, looked down. He felt his own stomach wrench at the sight of about the twenty or so graves. "I...I don't know what to say. The moles here in the ground fought just as hard as we did...and they have hardly anything to show for it."

"Now why would you think that?" Malfred asked.

Cynder stared at the nameless graves. Her heart fell at the sight of them. The moles who fought to protect the city from complete destruction...she didn't expect this was what Malfred wanted to show them, and she was completely speechless. She looked over to Spyro, as Spyro looked over to her...they were both feeling the same thing.

"Malfred...I...I..." she tried to get the right words to say, but the more she looked at the headstones, the more she couldn't look at them. She wiped her paw over her cheek and looked down along with Spyro.

"There's no way we could have prevented it..." Cynder responded to Malfred's question. Spyro would feel bad for not being able to stop these moles from dying in the war, and she did as well. It seemed like there would be far more casualties than what they were seeing here; she didn't know if there were other cemeteries scattered around the city. She shuttered at the thought.

"No there's not...but you know the one thing you did prevent? These fine lads from dying in vain...with you two here, don't you see? Sure they died...sure I lost my eyesight, and some fur in places I never knew I had before. But you know what you two did? You saved the world...you defeated the Dark Master, and now you've ensured that these brave men and women died doing their jobs. With you two alive it means there is hope...for a better place. That's what we've fought for. nd Spyro...Cynder?" He said as he was facing the wrong way away from them, but that didn't affect the size of his words to either dragon.

"You being here right now...makes me realize that there is something...better in store for all of us. You've given us hope..."

Cynder's heart was...practically melting at one Malfred was saying to them. She got a little closer to the gravestones now as the tears started to flow down her cheeks. "You...really believe in us..." Cynder said softly, a smile coming over her face. "I had no idea we had...that much of an effect on this city..."

From emissary of the greatest evil the world ever faced to being a savior of that world, Cynder could only look back at Spyro, the dragon with whom she shared such honor. "This is all so touching...I don't know what to say, Malfred..." she said as she used a wing to rid her eyes of the excess moisture. She didn't know why she was crying so much recently...perhaps the gravity of everything they've experienced from the defeat of Malefor, to their awakening, up to this point was finally taking its toll on the young dragoness's heart.

Spyro's tail latched onto hers softly, looking at her with a bit of renewed happiness in his eyes. "He's right...you know. These men and women didn't die for you to be sad. They died so that ultimately, we'd have something worth smiling about again. A world of peace...without the Dark Master." Spyro said as a smile grew on his face. "Thanks Malfred.

"Twas no problem at all, you twos. Now I know you want to go visit around and go look around and all. If you back to where the switch is for the reservoir you two might be able to find something to make this trip worth while..."

"I already have." Spyro said, smiling a bit.

"Aww shucks..." He said blushing. "Now go one you two. I got a friend to talk to." Malfred said.

Cynder looked back at his tail touching hers, then back up at him. Malfred was right, and she was glad she had Spyro here to help her. "I know, Spyro...I know." she said softly, smiling back at him before turning to the mole. "Thank you, Malfred..." she said with a bow of her head.

When Malfred left the two dragons alone, Cynder looked over at Spyro curiously. "So Spyro...you already have something planned for us?" she smiled, her tail lightly whipping against his a little playfully. "Mind if I ask what it is?"

He looked up at the sky, seeing the sky starting to come to life. "Yes...yes I do actually." Spyro replied blushing as he ran towards the stairs that lead to the wall up above them.

Cynder followed after him up the sets of wide steps that lead all the way up to the wall. Cynder was not a fan of stairs like these; it felt clumsy going up then since she walked on four feet instead of two like the moles did.

"Well what is it, Spyro?" she asked as she got a better view of the tops of the smaller buildings the further they went scaling the stairs that lead to the large wall surrounding the city.

"You'll see I just hope we make it in time..." Spyro said smiling as he ran towards the room leading up towards the great wall of the city, and noticed the switch was still there. "You ready?" He asked as he grabbed on the lever, just like they had done before.

Cynder smiled, then ran over next to him and putting her forepaws on the lever. She smirked at him and nodded her head to let him know she was ready. "I'm ready." she added, getting a tight hold on the lever.

Spyro pushed down on the lever, with all he had, and with the help of his mate he was able to open the door that was leading him to his destination.

"We're almost there, Cynder. Just a bit further." He said as he ran a short distance before flapping his wings and going airborne, flying up over the many stairs that led to where he wanted to be. He stopped and touched down on the wall, looking out over the horizon. "Cynder look, we're just in time..." He smiled, blushing softly.

Cynder flapped her wings gracefully and followed him up the stairs. Spyro seemed to want to hurry to show her whatever he had planned for the both of them. She touched down beside Spyro on the war-torn wall that missed so many chunks of stone. Cynder smiled a little at the familiar sight of the large, golden dragon-shaped cannon. It was a lot of work fending off Malefor's soldiers while trying to repair the cannon at the same time. She could just imagine the miles upon miles ofMalefor's forces piled outside the city, along with that terrible leviathan of a war machine that sent the invasion towers towards the crumbling walls. She forced the thought from her mind as she focused on what Spyro wanted to show her.

"What is it Spyro? What are you showing..." she asked as she looked over at the horizon, her words trailing off. Spyro wouldn't have to respond as her question was answered for her. The sun was just beginning to emerge from beyond the horizon, as she would see from where they sat on the wall. "Oh...the sunrise..." she said softly, looking over at Spyro. Then, she smiled. "Spyro...did you...plan this?"

"Well..." Spyro blushed a bit. "No not exactly, but I figured since we were here and it'd be daylight soon I may as well enjoy watching it with you." He said blushing as he looked at her face to face. Meanwhile, over near that cannon, was the very mole who had commandeered it during the siege. He was relatively unscathed thanks to Spyro and Cynder, but had a scar on his back from where a Grumlin got to close.

He knew those voices anyway and was about to say something when he noticed they were busy. He smiled to himself cheesily as he whispered something to the person who was inside the cannon, cleaning it in there, inaudible to them. A loud snicker came from the cannon and a bit of a hush not too loud. "Now go and let's make sure we get this thing loaded." He added.

"Yeah yeah, I got ya Hawkins." He said, as he crawled out of the cannon, all black from cleaning out the powder. He walked over to where Spyro was talking to Cynder, close to where the road. And just when the sun rose over the horizon, the mole pretended that he needed to wall by Spyro and bumped into him, forcing his lips to meet Cynder's in the biggest surprise of his life. Spyro's eyes were wide and his face was beyond the shade of any fire dragons.

Cynder let out a very audible gasp of complete surprise the minute her lips met Spyro's. Because of how sudden this was she accidentally lost her balance, and with Spyro having leaned into her, he fell right with her, on top of the black dragoness. . Her eyes went very wide just like Spyro's, unable to pull away with him on top of her. Her face was dark red like Spyro's and her heartbeat suddenly spiked.

This...she had not expected to happen.

Amazingly Spyro didn't break up from the kiss as he wrapped his tail around hers, deciding that if this was going to happen, he'd do it right. He pressed into the kiss even more, his paw lying gently to her sides as he closed his eyes a little before breaking it up, his whole face standing out against his purple scales easily. He was absolutely speechless at this point.

Meanwhile back over to the cannon, Hawkins and his subordinate high-fived and snickered. "Now let's get back to work before I get demoted a rank..."

He smirked rather mischievously as he mumbled. "You're welcome. Old friend..." Hawkins said before going back to work inspecting the cannon.

She didn't break from the kiss either. Cynder closed her eyes and blushed even harder as she pressed back against him, her lips firmly pressed against those of the dragon who was on top of her. Her pulse raced like crazy. She couldn't believe it, she was kissing Spyro the dragon...

"I...I...Spyro..." she stammered out, looking up at him. She wished the kiss hadn't ended so soon. It was so sudden, and it was her first kiss with him. She didn't know what else to say, looking away from him nervously as she stayed under him.

"Ummm...Cynder?" He said looking at her. "I...I think we missed the sunrise..." Spyro said, obviously embarrassed a bit as his paw wanderingly scratched at the floor of stone beneath them.

"I guess...we did..." she said softly, seeing that the sun had already fully risen over the horizon, casting light over the city. "But...this is still really nice..." she smiled softly and blushed deeply, reaching up slowly and nervously placing a paw on his chest. She could feel his heart beating rapidly, and it made her smile.

"Well...I'd beg to differ...I think I have my sunrise right here..." Spyro said as he cheesily blushed, laying a paw on her chest as well, feeling her heart race just as fast as he was and he was loving it.

Cynder blushed deeply at his words and smiled softly, a little embarrassed by his words she looked away a little. "Spyro..." she said softly, looking at him out of the corner of her eye before she looked back at him. Cynder drew in a deep breath before extending her neck up and pressing her face against his chest. "You're...so sweet..." she whispered softly to him, nuzzling her head on his yellow-scaled chest.

Spyro was still blushing hard at the awkward predicament they found themselves in. "Thank you..." Spyro said as he got up off of her, unwinding his tail from hers as he let her up.

Cynder blushed deeply and pulled her head away, biting down on her tongue nervously as she rolled over on her feet, then turned back to Spyro.

"So...um..." she said softly, rubbing the back of her head, her tail swaying back and forth behind her. How do you recover from an awkward...yet...very enjoyable situation? "The sunrise is really beautiful from here..." she said as she looked off into the distance, the sun's rays beginning to warm up her scales.

"Well ugh, you know that was ehh...the idea..." Spyro said blushing a bit. Before turning towards the sun. "Umm...you want to...go see those shops Malfred told us about now?" He asked, rubbing his right forearm with his left.

Cynder blushed and giggled nervously, clawing at the cracked stone beneath her paws. Now that he mentioned it, checking out the shops sounded like a really nice idea. Her curiosity piqued since Malfred mentioned it to them. "I think I'd like to do that, Spyro..." she smiled at him. "But...how would we buy anything?"

"Cynder, don't worry about that...I'm sure we'll figure something out." Spyro said as he walked by her.

Cynder got one last glance at the sun before she descended the stairs with her purple companion. She wasn't sure how to ask him this. The words were hard to find, as she didn't want to embarrass Spyro or even herself, so she just came out with it. "Spyro...did you enjoy what...happened back there?" she asked softly, her cheeks flushing lightly.

"I...what?" Spyro asked, the question taking him off guard as walked down the stairs, going back to the same lever he'd need help pulling again so they'd be able to leave.

Cynder closed her eyes and swallowed down the dryness in her throat. Getting up on her back legs and pressing her forepaws on the lever, she looked down at her claws nervously. "I mean...did you like..." she looked over at him, looking right into her is eyes as she said the next words. "The k-kiss?"

"Oh..." Spyro blushed heavily as he lifted up with al his power. "No...I didn't like it Cynder...because I sort of loved it." He said as with one final push, they lifted it up and the gates changed positions again.

Cynder blushed and blinked, grunting as she helped him push the lever up into place. "Spyro...I...more than loved it." she admitted, smiling at him as she edged a bit closer to Spyro. "I really...really loved it..." she said, then looked down and scratched her paw on the ground. Why was she so nervous? They both knew how they felt about each other...yet it was still hard to admit things like this.

"I umm..." Spyro simply couldn't find the will or the courage to even say anything at this point as he just ran at this point, using his tail to grab Cynder's nervous paw. He had butterflies in his stomach at this point, as he really, really wanted to get her something nice to show just how much he appreciated her.

Cynder squeaked in surprise as she was pulled along by Spyro's tail. Well, this was unexpected as well. "H-Hey! Slow down a little Spyro!" she said in surprise. She flapped her wings to help keep herself from losing her footing. With only three legs she managed to stay up, getting pulled all the way to Warfang's now-small market place, which Spyro seemed really eager to get to.

Spyro huffed and puffed after awhile while he ran and when he made it past the cemetery, past the water reservoir, down a bit took a left and entered the place where they first activated the reservoir he stopped. He was almost out of air, but had enough in him to make it to the market district. There was a cluster of several small stands, about six of them, in three on each side of the wall. Spyro went to the one closest to them and it looked like he was selling jewelry. "No...no way. It can't be...Spyro, Cynder." The mole ran up to both of them and gave them both a rather big hug.

"It's me, Hugo...you remember me?" He asked, he had his goggles melted to his face, and his dark brown fur was missing in a few small places bu he was one of the lucky ones who didn't get so burned, but like Malfred, he too wore a black robe.

"H-Hugo? I didn't know you sold jewelry?" Spyro asked.

"It's nice to see you're doing okay, Hugo..." Cynder responded, returning the hug to the mole.

"Well I didn't but I couldn't exactly be of any use to the military with these stupid goggles melted to my head. Kind of hard to see..." He said as he chuckled nervously, getting out of the hug looking to Spyro. "Come come...you two, I don't care. Pick what you want. I owe it to you at least..."

Cynder was still trying to catch her own breath after Spyro pulled her a ways. She shook the dust from her wings and folded them against her back. Sitting down beside Spyro in front of the market stall. "Spyro...I've never seen anything like this..." she said softly as she started to look over the jewelery Hugo laid out. Most of what he had were necklaces, pendants, and amulets, along with bracelets and other assorted pieces of jewelry. Some had brilliant precious stones encrusted into them, but a lot were made from only gold or silver.

She put her paw on the stall and took in a breath. "Wow...these are all so beautiful..." Cynder carefully reached her paw in and lightly pressed her paw against one of the amulets to feel the cold stone in the middle of it. Spyro could see in her eyes just how amazed she was by the jewelry.

Spyro noticed something that caught his eye. One of the pieces of jewelry wasn't made from any expensively transparent stone, no what caught his eye was made of black onyx and ivory...a brilliant white ivory. It resembled two dragon head's, the nose coming together to make a yin and yang sort of symbol, the dot being the eye. It looked to be two necklaces one for each half, but they joined in the middle. "What about this one Hugo?" Spyro asked, curious about it.

"Oh that? That was made by cheetahs a long time ago, ancient craftsmanship for sure. I don't know much about the symbol or what it represents but I'm just gonna tell you what I got told by my grammy when I asked her about it. She said it was a special necklace...sort of like a balance type thingamajiger. One side completes the other. A half of a whole...sort of deal. I take it you are interested in this?" Hugo whispered to Spyro. Spyro nodded.

"It's yours...I doubt it's very valuable anyway." Hugo said as he took the two pieces of the necklace and motioned for Spyro to lower his head. Spyro did just that and then looked down to see how the necklace looked on him. "Hey Cynder...what do you think?"

The minute Cynder saw the necklace she felt her heart start to beat harder. She didn't know how she looked that necklace over. A black half, and a white half...two halves of one whole, two opposites coming together as one. And it seemed Spyro chose his side of the pendent. "Spyro, it's...it's gorgeous." she smiled, then turned to Hugo. "C-Can you put the other half on me, Hugo?" she asked softly, really wanting to see how the onyx side looked around her neck.

"Of course Cynder." Hugo said as he grabbed the necklace and gently placed it around her neck as she asked. "What do you think buddy, don't you think that's a looker." Hugo said as he nudged Spyro a bit whistled, causing Spyro to blush immensely "I-I think it looks nice on you Cynder..." Hugo grabbed a crystal mirror small enough to hold in his hand to Cynder so she could view herself.

Cynder blushed strongly ay Hugo's words and rubbed her foreleg a little, then looked up to become face-to-face with her own reflection in the mirror. The beautiful dragoness had never really seen herself in a mirror before, and seeing it made her blush grow a bit stronger. She gently touched the pendent and moved it around a little to look at it at different angles. It looked absolutely perfect on her, as did Spyro's. It was like these necklaces were made especially for the two young dragons.

"Spyro...it's perfect." she said softly, looking over at Spyro with a bright, happy glint in her soft eyes. "Spyro, can we...get them?" She asked, holding the necklace to her broad chest.

"Of course Cynder...right Hugo?" Spyro asked.

"By all means..it's the least I can do after you saved my furry hide. Take it, I insist." He said.

Cynder smiled brightly and suddenly threw her paws around Spyro's neck, hugging him close and tightly. "Spyro...this is wonderful..." she whispered softly, lightly kissing his neck. Her own stomach had butterflies swarming in it. She couldn't describe how happy this moment made the black dragoness. She was so close he could feel just how hard her heart was pounding. "I love you Spyro..." she whispered just quiet enough for only him to hear it.

"I know..." Spyro said, blushing largely.

Cynder held him close and closed her eyes, staying where she was for a minute before letting him go. "T-Thank you, Spyro..." she blushed deeply, looking down at her paws as she was a little embarrassed by her sudden show of affection.

Spyro smirked a smidge as he full on nuzzled her as soon as she let go of the hug quickly saying. "I think we should head back home Cyn. I mean, it has been awhile since we trained...and I don't want to get rusty." He said, giving her a goofy smile.

Cynder tilted her head and smiled, nodding in agreement. They'd been gone from the Temple for a while now and hopefully the Guardians weren't worried about them. "Okay Spyro...I really had a lot of fun today." she smiled softly, happily returning the nuzzle to him.

"Thank you, Cynder. I...I had a great time too." He said a he looked over to Hugo, bowing his head a little.

"Thank you friend, if there is anything you need, you know what to do."

"If you can get me an extra lung that'd be great." He joked as he chuckled, only to throw a few bad coughs, signaling he was less than joking.

"Don't worry about me Spyro...I'll be fine." He told him. Spyro nodded his head as he flew off and out of the marketplace.

Cynder bowed her head to Hugo as well. "Thank you, thank you Hugo..." After exchanging their goodbyes to Hugo, Cynder took one last look at the necklace around her neck. Smiling, she spread her wings far apart and took off, flying quickly after Spyro.

"Bye Hugo, and thanks again for the necklace!" Spyro called out.

"Anytime my friend...anytime!' He called back, before he watched them disappear into morning sky.

* * *

If you liked the story, it would be very appreciated if you would leave a review!

Until the next chapter!


	4. Trouble in Paradise

Note: the _italicized _words indicate what's going on in Spyro's head, as well as the characters' thoughts.

Have a good read!

* * *

Warfang quickly disappeared over the horizon behind them. As hard as it was to leave the Dragon Capital, they couldn't stay there forever. They would visit their friends again someday though, when the city was fully restored. It all seemed like a distant memory now, and once again they flew over the familiar sight of the desolate jagged mountains. Even though the climate here was pretty arid, which didn't bother Cynder all that much, she really enjoyed the morning breeze that blew over and around the peaks of the mountains. Every time she flapped her wings the air washed over them like the water of a cold river.

She had to be careful though: her necklace could fall off if she did too many maneuvers, and she didn't want that to happen. Lifting higher into sky, the air flowed down Cynder's back and washed away any tension remaining in her muscles. Spyro was just a little ways below her, and everything felt like it was right where it should be...

Spyro was with his eyes closed for an instant or two, enjoying the cool refreshing air that blew by his face as he flew. Likewise, he wasn't doing any fancy maneuvers, just taking a relxing fly over the mountains.

Cynder ducked low under Spyro and flew around a few of the tall spires jutting out from the small canyons below them. She wasn't trying to show off, but she did want to have a little fun while she flew.

"Hey Spyro! Down here!" she called out to the purple dragon, hoping he'd come down and join in on the fun.

Spyro looked down to notice what she was doing. He smirked a little as he decided to go ahead and follow. He swooped down, dodging a few spires coming up from the mountain just as Cynder was.

Cynder giggled as she looked over at Spyro. Just what she was hoping for. She smiled as she swooped in beside Spyro, following behind him as she did a small spin in the air just to feel the breeze enveloping her entire body. She really enjoyed the feel of the wind rushing past her when she flew like this.

"Glad you could come on down Spyro..." she said as she came up beside him again.

"I'm glad to be here Cynder." He said as he looked over to her. "Want to race at to the end of this canyon?" Spyro asked.

Cynder smirked at his proposal and nodded her head "Oh, now I like the sound of that Spyro." she said as she began to ready herself for the race.

Spyro dodged another spire as he prepared himself as well. "You ready to eat my tail Cynder?" He asked playfully smirking.

Cynder chuckled softly as she smiled back at him. "Only if you're ready to eat mine." she responded in the same playful manner.

"Oh don't tempt me." Spyro said as he rushed forward with gusto, getting a good cheap head start. He dodge another spire before looking back at her. "I hope you like the view."

Cynder immediately dashed after him, smirking softly to herself. "Oh, you know I do Spyro..." she giggled softly and spun a few times past the spire, quickly gaining speed as she worked on catching up with him.

Spyro blushed majorly as if he couldn't believe what he just heard, but kept on flying anyway, this causing him to lose momentum as he slowed down.

"Oh you do huh?" He asked.

Cynder smiled and caught up with him, flashing her bright, sharp white teeth in a playful grin. "I do Spyro..." she said softly, leaning in and giving him a quick, small lick on his nose.

All seemed to be going to well until Spyro's closed and relaxed eyes, suddenly his expression turned to one of mild discomfort. He shook his head as he opened his eyes, starting to feel a little woozy and it was clear in his how we was starting to waver from his course.

_'Spyrrooo...'_

A voice suddenly came to Spyro, which only his mind could hear. "W-What? Cynder did you say something?" He asked, looking back at her.

When Cynder looked over at Spyro she blinked at the sight of the purple dragon's mid-air swaying. She spread her wings out to lower her altitude until she was a few feet to his right.

"No, I didn't say anything..." Cynder replied, her face bearing an expression of concern. Spyro never acted this way before unless... "Spyro, is something wrong? I can tell you're getting a bit wobbly on me..." she said softly, now lightly flapping her wings against the soft morning air. Cynder hadn't heard anything; other than Spyro, the only thing she could hear was the breeze that blew past them.

"I-I'm sure it's nothing Cynder..." Spyro said as he heard the long wispy voice calling out his name. Little did Cynder know that deep within his own mind, Spyro was having his own battle right there beside her.

'_Spyrrooo...come join us in our eternal suffering_...'

_Spyro could see a a dragon that looked to be about double his size, and his spirit had a blue glow to it…as if it had just come from the deepest darkest freezer. Looking at him sent chills down his spine. Ice spikes came up from his back and as if that was the way he had died in life._

_'It doesn't matter who I am. We want you...to join in our suffering, because you are the cause of our damnation_.' He said as he walked forward, step by step into the depths of Spyro's mind.

Cynder blinked a few times and started to slow down, staring at Spyro with worried eyes.

"Spyro...are you okay?" she asked as she got closer to the male dragon. She couldn't see any of what Spyro was seeing, or feel what he was feeling, despite the fact she was so close to him.

Back in the real world , Cynder could tell Spyro was struggling to stay aloft as the fight of wills raged.

"N-No..." Spyro said as his wing clipped a spire and he was sent crashing down to the earth.

"Spyro!" Cynder cried out when Spyro suddenly plummeted towards the mountains. The black dragoness immediately lunged down and flew after him as fast as she could. She didn't know what was going on, but at this moment she had to stop Spyro from hitting the ground below them.

As Spyro plummeted to the earth, he miraculously righted himself going to the ground paws first but he was coming in too hot. As soon as his front paws touched the ground he did a frontflip and started rolling a few ways before finally coming to rest on a flat. He was crawling towards...towards a pitch black area of sky off into the distance.

S_pyro could feel his body trapped in ice by the evil ice dragon. Surrounded by the halls and corridors that could only be his mind, Spyro found himself at a dead end._

_"I'm going to take your body….and then I'm going to drag you to where all good things die" The dragon said chuckling with his signature deep voice._

_'Oh...Ancestors. It's...it's the...'_

The draconic apparition smirked mockingly at Spyro.

Cynder coughed on the thick dust cloud thrown up by Spyro's near impact with the ground. Once her visibility cleared she could see Spyro...crawling. But the way he crawled looked so unnatural to her, it was like he wasn't himself.

Where was Spyro going? Cynder couldn't understand what was wrong with Spyro as she shouted after him, but her words were simply ignored as she could only watch the dragon crawling across the cold rock like a newborn hatchling.

Cynder could see the clouds gather above what appeared to be the remains of a crumbled mountain. The dark cloud overhead circled the top of it slowly. Slowly, but at the same time hypnotically. The shape of the base looked so very familiar to her. In the back of her mind she knew she'd been here before, but so many years back. In her mind she could picture the top of the mountain...a dragon head facing up towards the heavens with its mouth wide open...then, it hit her like a ton of bricks when she realized where she and Spyro had stumbled upon.

Her heart skipped several beats and a rough shiver of complete dread went up her spine. No...it couldn't be...it just couldn't. She thought that was all behind them. That they would never look upon this cursed place ever again, but as Spyro crawled towards it like something was taking control of him. All content and happiness was sucked from her young body, and it felt like she was going to be crushed by the wave of fear that quickly filled her bones.

"No...n-no it can't be..." Cynder uttered the words, shaking her head in disbelief. "The...Well of Souls..."

A dark laugh escaped from Spyro's mouth, but it certainly wasn't Spyro. "Spyro...is that what you call this pathetic excuse for a body?" He said, it was obviously not him, but rather a much deeper voice.

Cynder's eyes widened and she took a step back from Spyro. That wasn't his voice...that wasn't what her Spyro sounded like. Deep down in her body she felt something was wrong, but now she knew something was very, very wrong.

_"Now..." He said as he placed a paw on Spyro's head. "You're mine."_

_"AGGGHHHH!" Spyro screamed._

"G-Get...out." Spyro growled severely as he grabbed his head with his paws.

It felt like a thousand talons were scraping across cold hard stone, the pressure on Spyro's mind almost too much to bear.

"Spyro what's going on?" Cynder gave a very audible whimper as fear started to grip her body. She wanted to go over to him and try to shake the dragon out of his episode, but something told her that she shouldn't go over to him...she felt...something dark coursing off Spyro's body, and she didn't like it at all. "Spyro!"

"Haha...you can't stop me...just accept your fate." The voice came back, as Spyro's body glowed black if just for a quick second. "What are you doing?!"

'_Get...out!' _Spyro shouted as he curled himself to a ball, wrenching around as if his entire body was on fire.

Spyro's body was starting to turn black, with a black wisp around him.

'_No! What are you doing! Stop_!' He called out in warning.

In a great big surge of energy Spyro sent a huge shockwave, shattering the ice that held his mind at bay. "Aggggghhhhhh!"

His body started to resist the evil unknown dragon spirit as his body flickered to black again and again; until finally an eruption of pure and raw power, in the form of dark purple energy, erupted from Spyro's body. Firing a Convexity Beam straight into the air from his maw that could be seen for miles around, even Warfang.

"Hello…what do you suppose that is Hawkins?" The mole who bumped into Spyro asked earlier, looking up from the canon.

"I dunno, Oadie...but something tells me it's nothing good..." Hawkins said from his seat in the canon, the beam reflected in his goggles.

'_Agggghhhhhhhhhhh!' _The spirit was literally pushed from his mind the same way the shockwave affected the real world. The spirit could be seen flying back in a green orb like mist back to the well of souls with much haste. However...Spyro had another problem on his paws. Black shadow enshrouded his body as he got up slowly off the ground, shaking himself to dust himself off as he looked at Cynder, not himself...and roared.

Cynder was nearly knocked back as the sudden appearance of the Convexity Beam from Spyro. She was practically scared out of her hide. Her muscles became stiff, and she suddenly found it really hard to move. The Convexity...the Well of Souls...the voice that didn't belong to Spyro...what was going on? This couldn't be the work of the Dark Master, could it?

As the smoke cleared it was clear Spyro wasn't himself at this point, black mist rolling out in waves down at Cynder's paws.

"Spyro! What's going on?!" she screamed over the tension that filled the now-thick air around them. Spyro's scales were black just like hers, but as dark as an empty void; as empty as his eyes were at this moment. She saw nothing in them; no emotion, no life...devoid of everything that used to fill Spyro's purple eyes. She shook her head rapidly, her legs shaking where she stood.

Spyro looked over at Cynder, not even recognizing her.

"No...n-no, Spyro..." she couldn't believe it: something drew out Spyro's dark side.

Spyro took a step forward, his body low to the ground as he eyes Cynder like a piece of meat. He steps became quicker and quicker until he was in a full on sprint towards her. He was running at her with reckless abandon, the heavy black mist coming from his body making a streak of black smoke behind him as he moved.

As Spyro suddenly ran at her like this, Cynder reacted as quickly as she possibly could and flipped out of his way just as he barely got her, landing on all four paws a few feet away from him.

"Spyro...don't do this!" she continued to shake her head in disbelief, wanting to believe this was all a horrible nightmare. But it wasn't. Everything in front of her was real. She knew she could just keep dodging him, but if she had to fight to save her own life...she wouldn't go down easily.

Spyro couldn't even hear himself as he charged at her. Rage filled his eyes as he charged at her, firing a convexity beam that ripped the mountain beneath them apart as he drove it towards her, creating a new path in the mountainside as crumbled rock and debris were thrown everywhere in the blast as he ran at her.

Cynder had to cover her face with her wing to keep the sharp, brittle rocks from getting in her eyes. The next thing she knew both the beam and Spyro were coming towards her. Cynder clenched her eyes shut and leaped to the side of the blast, having to do several flips to get completely out of the blast's way. She prepared herself for his next attack, readying one of her own simply to better protect herself from Spyro's ruthless onslaught.

Spyro charged at Cynder, going at her with a burst of speed as he cloaked his tail in Convexity and use his tail as a baseball bat, using his momentum to swing himself and slammed himself into her, following up from his devastating blast from earlier.

Cynder could only feel pain from this attack. She flew back and hit the rock wall with a loud cry of pain, falling to the ground in a heap. She struggled to get up and faced him, a weak growl escaping the dragoness. "Spyro...stop...it's me! Cynder!" She yelled as she charged up her fear power and with all her might, shot a blast of pure red energy his way, a loud, ear-piercing scream ripping itself from her throat.

A large and very visible glow could be seen coming from Spyro's back paws as he ran towards Cynder. With each push of his legs on the ground, a visible small crater could be seen forming from each step he took with his back paws. As he neared close enough, he released all this pent-up energy in his back feet with wreckless abandon, propelling himself towards Cynder with great speed as the ground broke beneath the crackle of energy.

"Stop Spyro! Stop!" Cynder cried out, her body shaking now. Her attack did not deter the dark side of Spyro. She didn't know what to do. Spyro was coming at her like he wanted to really hurt her, but...if he did, she knew she just wouldn't be able to get herself to retaliate and attack him back, stronger than she did before.; she couldn't hurt the dragon that meant so much to her, she just couldn't! With no other option available to her, she threw her wings in front of herself as a makeshift shield and focused her Shadow energy into them, cloaking her body in a protective barrier. Whether or not this would stop withstand the power of the Convexity...there was only one way to find out...

Spyro finally reached Cynder a dark smirk crossed his face as he fired a dark beam of Convexity energy straight at her wings, as he ran in and under stopping just short of her protective wings, ducking under them as a paw shot up grabbing her throat. Cynder suddenly found herself gasping for air with the paw around her neck, her shadow shield breaking apart into nothing.

Using the momentum he picked her up and slammed her onto the ground and on her back. There was a dark look in his eyes as he stared into hers.

'_No...Spyro..._' She thought, crying out in pain as she was slammed down against the ground. Her back sang with pain, and her eyes teared up heavily from the pain and what Spyro was doing to her. Her hurt-filled eyes looked back into the empty voids that were the eyes of the dark dragon holding her down. Those eyes...those horrible empty eyes...they scared her so much now and her tears came even faster.

Spyro heard a soft clicking sound and looked down to see that Cynder had connected the two pieces together...staring at it longingly Spyro finally snapped out of his rage, going back to normal as he hugged Cynder, tears streaming down his face.

The clicking of the pendants together barely registered to Cynder, but when she saw the light meet the darkness, becoming whole again...then Spyro hugged her. Cynder was still for a moment, then threw her paws around Spyro and cried into the crook of his neck.

"Cynder...what have I done?"

"Spyro...what's happened to you?" she said with a whimper in her voice, shaking in fear of this side of Spyro being so close to her, but she couldn't bring herself to throw him off when he was this vulnerable...she couldn't find it in her heart to hurt him...

He chuckled softly. He could see the fear in her eyes. They were both scared of the darkness within Spyro, and what it meant.

"I-I don't know Cynder, I was flying...and then I heard this voice. Calling out to me. It was a dragon spirit from the well of souls, wanting to drag me down with them. He said I was the reason for their damnation...I...are...are you okay?" He asked, panic in his voice, he couldn't bear the thought that he hurt Cynder.

Cynder closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, holding him close to her warm body. "Spyro...I...we...we need to get away from here..." she shivered hard at the thought of being here any longer than they were now. Even though the mountain crumbled to ruin, nothing like it was years before...the spirits still lingered around the mountain. No matter what, this place would be nothing but a place of pure evil.

"I'm...okay..." Cynder said softly, trying to ignore the pain in her back. Her heart beat was really quick, and he would be able to feel it against his chest. She knew Spyro wouldn't hurt her...she knew him better than that.

Spyro let go of her, taking back his side of the necklace as he got up. He helped her up with his tail and looked her over, he was obviously still concerned, looking her over for any bruises or scrapes. "You sure you'll be alright?" He asked.

"I couldn't agree with you more Cynder, let's...let's go." Spyro said as he gingerly licked her neck in apology. "Maybe I should fly ahead this time...just in case?" He said, as he lifted up his paw, and his flank had a scrape on it from his tumbled landing.

Cynder struggled to get on her paws, her side of the pendent swaying under her neck. She looked back at her wings and slowly spread them, wincing when they reached their full wingspan. "I think so...my back really hurts..." she said softly, the muscles in her back throbbing like mad. They hurt, but she knew she would be able to make it back to the Temple. At least she hoped.

"Good idea Spyro...let's just get out of here!" she said, then noticed him rubbing his flank. "You're not hurt, are you Spyro?" she asked as she got close to look at his scraped flank. It looked like a minor injury, but she was still concerned about him, the same way he was for her.

"It's but a scratch Cynder...you...look like you're in a bit of pain." He said as concerned as he began stretching. Before they took off flying again, back to their original destination. Spyro looked to Cynder as he spread his wings. "You sure you can make it?"

Cynder shook her head and flapped her wings a few times to test out her wings. "They're a little bruised but nothing I haven't dealt with before."she said softly as the clouds began to darken overhead and the wind picked up. The dark presence surrounding them grew stronger, and she looked over at Spyro.

"Let's just get out of her. Now." she said hastily as she flapped her wings hard and lifted herself into the air. She winced in slight discomfort and lost some of her lift, but quickly recovered from it. She would have a few bruises, but she would survive.

Spyro nodded in solemn understanding to her and took off without another word, towards the place they called home. Away from the Well of Souls, away from his darker half...away from himself for a while. Spyro sighed heavily as he looked over to the well of Souls one last time.

'_Spyyyrrooo_..." wailed the voice from the Well of Souls in defiance on last time.

"I'll come back here one day...and when I do I'll be ready." He said to himself.

Cynder shrugged off the discomfort in her back and flew after Spyro, keeping him in front of her the entire time. She wanted to put this all behind her for good; she was done with the Dark Master, done until Spyro was ready to conquer his inner demons that plagued him.

"Let's go home Spyro..." she said softly to the purple dragon as she came up to his side, leaving the Mountain of Malefor and the lingering spirits behind them.

* * *

Spyro landed softly on the balcony of the Temple, that overlooked the garden. "It's good to be back finally." Spyro said as he entered the training room. "We're back!" Spyro called, wondering where the guardians were. They soon came from their respective rooms, rushing down the hall to greet the pair of dragons at the balcony. Volteer was the first to enter, followed by Cyril.

Cynder let out a light grunt as she touched down on the balcony. Her muscles were still a little sore but it didn't bother her at all anymore. She went after Spyro into the training room, the sight of the Temple interior very comforting after what they just went through; even more so when she saw two of the three Guardians.

"My word Spyro where were you, what happened, we were so worried, exhausted, concerned, we had feared..."

"Yes yes Volteer we all feared for the young dragons safety after what we saw a few hours ago. Are you alright young dragons?" Cyril asked referring to the blat of Convexity energy Spyro shot up in the air. It was visible for miles.

"I'm fine...Cyril. Volteer. But...where is Terrador."

"Right here." Terrador said as he was the last to enter.

"We're both fine..." Cynder said softly as she sat down beside Spyro. "We had a very busy day..." She said softly, looking over at Spyro with an expression that read: 'should we tell them about what happened?'

Cynder wasn't too crazy about the idea of telling the Guardians what happened at the Well of Souls; she didn't want them to worry about them too much, as it was all over now... but they'd seen the Convexity beam for sure, so there wasn't any hiding it from them. Unless they pressed them for details, she would keep her mouth shut if Spyro would too.

"We were jut training is all. It's nothing we couldn't handle. Right Cynder?" Spyro asked. He wouldn't want to hazard a guess of what the Guardians would say or do to him if they realized he had that sort of power within him.

_'Would they still look at me the same? Would they treat me any different?' _He thought. He shoved these negative thoughts from his mind as all attention turned to Cynder.

Cynder nodded her head as casually as she could, managing to do so successfully. "Yep...nothing too major. Just enough to tire us out a little, that's all." She said softly.

She hoped their lie would be convincing enough. She didn't want Spyro's power to come to the Guardian's knowledge; she didn't want to think about what would happen if they ever found it, so it would just be better for everyone if they didn't..."Although now Spyro and I could use some training..." Cynder continued.

"But didn't you just say you were training?" Volteer asked.

"Volteer, you and I both know there is nothing compared to training in the temple." Spyro said smoothly.

"Well you have a point there, young dragon..." Volteer said. The two other Guardians nodded their heads at each and Cyril said.

"Well just be sure you two clean up the training room after you are done."

"We will Cyril." Spyro said giving a nod. "Alright run along you two, we won't keep you waiting." Terrador said, chuckling.

Suddenly Volteer seemed to be completely intrigued by the necklaces Spyro and Cynder wore when he noticed them.

"Why Spyro I dare say, where did you get those necklaces, they look to be at least 2nd century in origin. Why I haven't seen old age cheetah craftmanship like since I was a hatchling, they are so fascinating, where did you get them?' Volteer asked, hyper as ever as his nose was literally glued onto Spyro's chest looking at his side of the necklace before looking at Cynder's as well.

"Well...I, ugh..." Spyro blushed a bit at the mentioning of the necklace rubbing the back of his head with his paw. He was a bit flustered and didn't know how to say it.

With a soft blush on her face, opening her mouth to say something when Volteer came so close. She didn't expect the yellow-scaled Guardian to get so intrigued by their necklaces. Finally though, she spoke up.

"Well...a friend of ours at Warfang let us have them, to well...repay us for saving him." Cynder said, reaching up to place a paw on the onyx necklace. "They're nice, aren't they, Volteer?" she asked, looking up at the larger dragon.

"Oh yes, I dare say downright intriguing. I have never seen anything like them before..." Volteer said as he stared at them for a bit.

"Ugh. yes well...thank you Volteer." Spyro said as he blushed heavily with how close Volteer was getting too. Volteer cupped Spyro's necklace in his paw.

"And you say a mole gave this to you? I wonder how he ever came about this...this is very odd indeed. It is rather rare to find jewelry made from the cheetahs of that era. Because most of their jewelry worshipped dragons and after Malefor came into power...they sort of...lost their relevancy." Volteer replied.

"Yes yes yes, the necklaces are rather enthralling Volteer, but let's make sure they are okay first before badgering them about silly jewelry." Cyril replied.

Cynder nodded her head and smiled softly. It had been a while since either of them trained at the Temple, and she wanted to brush up on her techniques, and work on keeping her moves in-sync with Spyro's.

With that all taken care of, Cynder cleared her throat.

"Well then..." she smiled. "Let's go Spyro." She smiled at Spyro. Cynder was the first to trot off towards the training room. As she passed up Spyro, her tail accidentally brushed up against Spyro's neck. The large wood door that lead to the training room slid open for her with a stiff, solid creak, and she vanished inside the room.

Spyro walked in close behind Cynder. "So Cynder, what do you think we should work on? Elemental attacks...melee?"

Not too long after, Terrador entered the room. "Spyro, Cynder. I've known you two long enough to know, that solo...you two can handle yourselves against pretty much anything. But the one thing you two need to learn, is how to use your gifts to help complement one another." Terrador said as the dragon statue began move, sliding beneath the floor...a sight Spyro hadn't seen since her first started training and learning the elements for the first time.

After the statue was gone and the floor a wide open space, Terrador noted a new enemy. Since he couldn't use those darn filthy ape captives as training dummies anymore, he had to improvise.

"Cyril. Volteer." Terrador called. A few minutes later the two other Guardians came in.

"Help me make some elementals. I want to test their teamwork." Terrador said.

"Ohohoho, don't forget to take off your necklaces young dragons. Wouldn't want to lose them now would you?" Volteer said.

Cynder blinked as she saw Cyril and Volteer come in the training room. Cynder knew not to expect to use the Ape dummies for target practice now that they were practically non-existant with their former Master gone, and she didn't know what they'd be using this time around, either.

"Oh, you're right, Volteer." Cynder nodded and slid the necklace off her neck, looking down at it as she held it in her paw. "Here, Spyro. Let's keep them together." she said as she smiled over at her companion, setting the necklace down on the floor in between them with the split side facing towards Spyro.

"Cyril, Volteer, what will we be training with?" Cynder asked as her tail swayed back and forth across the dusty floor of the Temple training room.

"I'm pretty sure we can trust Volteer with them right? I just don't think it's wise to leave them on the floor." Spyro said as he looked at the necklaces. Volteer gasped at the sudden. "Oh you wouldn't mind that would you?"

Cyril put his face in his paw. '_Like...a hatchling...in a room full of dragonflies...'_

Cyril looked up to answer Cynder's question. "Why elementals of course. You've heard of those..right Cynder? I would think with your time being with Dark Master you've seen a few. They are like golems, but can only be hurt by one element. Their own." Cyril replied.

Cynder smiled a little and nodded her head. "Well...as long as he promises not to handle them too hard..." she said, then turned her attention to the ice dragon.

"I have, Cyril, but I'm not too familiar with them. I saw a few " She said. When she was still on the side of the Dark Master she saw a few of such creatures among the legions of Apes. The memories were vague, but she might have commanded over a few of them at some point in her service to Malefor.

"Of course, I'll be as soft as a feather, as gentle as a bird's song, as.."

"Okay, Volteer...we get it." Spyro chuckled as he handed over the necklaces to him. "Just sit back and watch."

Volteer nodded as he gently took the necklaces.

"Now after you see us do it...Spyro...Cynder. You two are going to need to be able to make this training dummies yourself. Their rather weak, and impractical for any real use in fighting. But here. It's okay to use them here. Since none of use Gaurdians have the elements you do...you'll have to make your own if you want to be effective." He said referring to Cynder specifically.

"More specifically...watch me and Cyril." Terrador said.

Cynder nodded her head as she sat back to watch what Cyril and Terrador, looking over at Spyro every now and then. After making it out of that mess together, she felt...so much closer to him than before. She felt those same butterflies that swarmed her stomach back at Warfang when they shared their first - albeit accidental - first kiss. Just thinking about it made her warm up all over, but for the moment she put those thoughts to the back of her mind as she focused her attention on the Ice and Earth Guardians.

Terrador and Cyril both their put their paws together on this one, as they hadn't made elementals in quiet some time. Because of Malefor, it was consider taboo to do so nowadays, but Cyril and Terrador never the less wanted the savior of the realms to learn something this day. Using the earth, Terrador thought up of the shape he wanted in his mind's eye and using his earth powers an arm came out of the earth, the earth making a bulge for the fist and forearm while a tree root was loosely attached followed by a body which looked to be made of earth mostly then the head came up and emerged, giving the golem a sort of knightlike appearance. But it was only half an elemental? Why was that? The answer soon came when out of the ground and using the moisture from the air, Cyril crafted the other half. His half looked sort of skeletal in comparison, but the legs, arm and head of the elemental was all the same size. Looking like a chilly undead soldier, Cyril gae it an ice axe to wield even.

This took much concentration on both their parts, but due to their years of experience it was like second nature to them.

"Go on Spyro...try and knock it out. See what happens." Cyril said smirking.

Cynder stood up and examined the product of Cyril and Terrador's elemental powers. But during her entire service to Malefor she'd never seen an elemental made of two different elements at once. The sight of the half-earth half-ice elemental knight with a different shaped body structure on each side was...amazing. She could only guess how this was going to end up turning out. She looked over at Spyro and smiled.

"Yeah, go ahead Spyro...I'm rooting for you." she said as she smiled at the purple dragon.

Spyro, knowing at least one side was earth and opened his mouth, a green orb glowing in it as he charged up his attack, and firing it much like he did an icicle, fired the earth missile attack right at the two elemental creature. But only one side was affected, and it looked like the earth side was starting to build itself back up.

"You see Spyro, if you don't attack it with the same element on either side, it won't be destroyed. If this was perhaps something Cynder could hit, you two would have to come up with ways to attack." Terrador said.

"Thanks Terrador. I think I get what you want us to do." Spyro said smiling back at the Earth and Ice guardian.

"Great...now I'm sure you two know what to do...come Terrador, Volteer. We have a game of freeze tag we need to continue." Cyril said as he smirked widely walking out of the room.

"If you two have any trouble we'll be in the courtyard. Just practice. I'm sure you two will get the hang of making your own special elementals." Terrador said, before quickly.

Wow, this sounded rather challenging. It now became clear to Cynder why they made such an elemental golem. With Malefor gone there was no guarantee they would even come across such a creature, but that wasn't the point of this exercise; as they said before, Spyro and Cynder need to learn how to compliment each other; to work in tandem to take down their foes. They could already do that with some ease, but only a foolish one turns down the chance to learn more.

'_Interesting...' _Cynder thought to herself. _'The golem is rebuilding itself...but how can I help? I don't know how to use electricity.'_

She made sure to give her thanks to the Guardians before they left, then turned back and looked at the golem that stood there, waiting for their attacks.

"Spyro, how can I possibly help here?" Cynder asked as she took a few steps towards him. "I can't even use either element that golem is made of."

Before leaving Terrador looked at the golem. "Come on Spyro, I'll help you with this one. But just this once." Terrador said as he looked down at Spyro and they both nodded their head. Terrador did much the same thing as Spyro did, going for an earth missile, but Spyro did something rather surprising as he went in for close. Following up behind, and knowing only a simultaneous hit would destroy the golem, Terrador only wanted to fire his shot at the right time. Spyro encased his tail in ice, ducking under the axe swing as Terrador fired his shot at the golem's right side, while Spyro's tail crashed through it's chest shattering it.

"Alright!" Spyro said excitedly as the golem was destroyed.

Cynder smiled as she watched the golem crumble to nothing. Now, she understood more of what their goal was here today. But a question still lingered in her head.

"Terrador..." Cynder spoke up as she looked up at the larger dragon. "I can't use any of Spyro's elements. How could I possibly help him against that kind of golem?"

"That's the point Cynder. You don't have to use any of Spyro's elements. Just use what you have. You two have to make your own golems in order to train, such is why me and Cyril showed you how. You get to learn two things in one day I know you two can do it." Terrador said as he smiled at Cynder.

Cynder nodded at Terrador's words, then looked over at Spyro with a smile. "Well then, what do you say Spyro? Want to give it a try?" she asked, her tail whipping around behind her.

"Of course Cynder." Spyro said, giving her a grin as his tail was doing much the same n anticipation.

Many hours passed as both Spyro and Cynder had tried their hardest to create an elemental like Cyril and Terrador had. They had tried many combinations, poison and earth, fire and fear, shadow and ice. But they just weren't getting something down. Why were they not doing right?By this time they had been very fortunate that they did not run out of energy. Spyro was huffing and puffing, looking a smidge exhausted from his efforts with Cynder as he looked back out on the balcony to check what time it was.

"Wow...it's practically midday Cynder." He said smiling. "Let's try one more..." Spyro said as he looked to Cynder.

"Okay, Spyro..." Cynder said softly as she stretched her body out, popping the bones in her neck with a soft grunt. "I'm getting pretty tired from all the training, so one more sounds good..." she nodded, taking in long, deep breaths as she sat down for a few minutes to catch her breath. "Which combination should we try this time?"

"Let's try wind and fire...after all these elements do work rather well together." Spyro replied, a new look of determination in his eye.

Cynder perked up a little at this and smiled. "Good idea Spyro. Wind and fire it is, then." she said, getting ready to use her wind element for their last attempt to build an elemental golem. Hopefully it would work this time around.

"Okay let's do it Cynder..." Spyro said as he breathed out a stream of fire, where Cynder let out some wind to carry the flames. The wind dances around the flame, molding it into hands, some feet, and even a head. The whole fire golem was kept together by the wind on the outside, giving the elemental it's rather bulky shape. Spyro could swear it was about the same size as on of the elemental foes he had to defeat back at the Chronicler's place all those years ago, only without the armor. It's hands of fire were bulky, it's chest wide, but the middle wasn't even there. A small wind spere in the middle connecting both the top and bottom half together.

It held a sword made of wind, and Spyro was so happy he completely forgot it was an enemy. "We did it Cynder!" Right then and there the sword came crashing down in between them.

"Oh right!" Spyro said as he reflectively sidestepped to the left.

"I sure hope you have a plan Cynder."

Cynder looked back and forth between Spyro and the impressive golem they created, avoiding an attack from the creature's axe by doing a graceful sideways backflip, sliding across the floor of the training room. Of all the golems that manifested inside the training room, this one their most intimidating and threatening up to this point.

"Um...oh, I've got it!" she suddenly got an idea. "Come over here Spyro! Quickly!" she said as she started to flap her wings with her paws firmly planted on the floor.

Spyro ran over to Cynder while ducking under, jumping over, and deflecting three fireballs that came his way and when he finally reached Cynder he called "Here!"

Cynder quickly grabbed Spyro by his forepaws and managed to get them both up on there hindlegs. "Hold on tight Spyro!" she said as the golem started to charge in their direction. Closing her eyes tightly she quickly spun her wings rapidly and started to spin their bodies around, quickly picking up speed until the two dragons were in the middle of a thick gale force that echoed through the training chamber.

Spyro smirked, surprised that his mate would come up with such a plan so quickly as he held onto her neck tightly. Spyro opened his maw and released a stream of fire that, when coming into contact with the strong gale caused a massive flare to erupt into a massive spinning tornado of flame, sucking the air out of the chamber and blowing thick flames across the room. It dragged the creature in due to the rotation of the tornado, spinning it above their heads and bathing it in flames., the creature letting out a loud "Agghhhhroooooaaa" as it died and turned back into its most basic form.

"Great idea."

Cynder smiled brightly when she heard the creature let out an agonizing groan as it died. She opened her eyes to look at the giant inferno that surrounded them, and instantly regretted it. Somehow she completely lost control of her own whirlwind. They spun faster and faster until Cynder cried out, then she and Spyro were suddenly sent in a very awkward sideways spin that sent them tumbling through the air, with Spyro still holding onto her.

"W-Whoa!" Cynder cried out as she and Spyro hit and rolled across the floor several times, completely knocking the wind out of both of the young, overworked dragons.

Spyro let out a loud "OOF!" As the wind was indeed knocked out of his chest. His body was entagled with hers, him lying over top of her in a messy. "You alright Cynder?" Spyro asked, as soon as he caught his breath and tried standing up, if only slightly getting his left paw out from behind Cynder's right forearm.

Cynder grunted softly and clenched her teeth as she rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, I'm fine Spyro..." she responded, lifting her head off the hard floor of the training room to see how tangled up they were. "Um...Spyro?" she said softly, a deep blush showing up on her face. That rough landing from the whirlwind mishap left them in a rather...awkward situation...

"Y-Yeah Cynder?" He said as he blushed rather heavily at how awkward this was too, his tail swaying to and fro gently. 'Is it just me, or is starting to...get hot in here?' Spyro thought as he could feel Cynder's moist hot breath hit the back of his neck.

She was rather speechless at this point. Cynder didn't pull away, mainly because she was under the other dragon. This was really, really sudden, just like what happened in Warfang. "I um...think I got a little carried away with...my whirlwind, didn't I?" she said softly as she started to feel hot just like Spyro was, a different thought entering her head, part of her wondering if and when Spyro was going to climb off of her...

"Maybe just a little." he said, blushing largely as he finally positioned himself to where he was face to face with her...wrapping his tail around hers a bit, trying to get some leverage to move his back right leg from under her back left.

Cynder blushed deeply at the feel of his tail on hers. Almost on instinct she wrapped her tail much more firmly around his, then realized what she was doing. "I...I..." she stammered out nervously as she pressed her paws against his chest, looking up into his eyes. The look in her eyes was much different than it normally was; it contained...something that could only be described as either embarrassment or...a growing passion...

Spyro looked into the depths of her soul before asking "Y-yeah...Cynder?" He asked as his muzzle got closer and closer to hers...their muzzles almost touching as his paw came to rest on the middle of her chest. His eyes seemed to be speaking the same thing. Almost as if he could...feel someting calling to him. Her eyes...he couldn't take his gaze away from her eyes. They seemed to be asking him something as his face grew cherry red...for the second time in less than a day.

Cynder didn't take her own eyes away from Spyro's purple ones. She couldn't and simply didn't want to. Her heart beat rapidly, and her pulse raced. With their muzzles nearly making contact her warm breath pillowed over his nose. Then, she closed the gap and pressed their snouts together. She had never felt this much closeness to the purple dragon that stole her heart.

"Spyro...please stay here..." she whispered softly as she kept both paws on his chest, her own raising slowly against his. Parts of them were still tangled together, but she did not want him to get off...not at this moment, or even ever...

"I wouldn't dream of leaving...where else would I have to go...but...with...you." He said as he licked the tip of her muzzle, the intimate contact giving him butterflies in his stomach, but he wanted to stay as he gently grabbed a paw off of his chest holing it in his. "I...Cynder is...is this what you want?" His pleading eyes asked, he could feel his heart race being this close to the only dragoness that ever made him feel whole.

Cynder smiled at the sound of his words, shivering at the lick she received and returning the lick to Spyro's own. The contact they shared made her feel so warm all over, she couldn't describe how great it felt to be so close to Spyro. She kept her paw in his own, gently and happily pressing her forehead against his chest. She felt his warmth and his beating heart; it was so comforting and reminded her so much of where she belonged: with him, and only him.

"Yes, Spyro..." she responded in her soft, sweet voice, lifting her other paw and gently setting it on the side of his face as she looked back deeply into his eyes. "This is all I've ever wanted...the only thing I could want...is to be with you."

"Then...take it. I won't fight..." He said as he gently kissed her, only this time...it wasn't an accident as he wrapped his paws around her neck. His eyes closed as he pressed forward with all the love and passion one could ever give to another.

* * *

The will also be the final chapter. Just wanted everyone to know that.

Read & Review!


	5. Epilogue: A Dream Come True

Finally, this is the last chapter. Enjoy

* * *

**Several months later...**

It was a crisp morning outside the Temple. Spyro was just waking up as he put paws on the window to look outside, taking in a big breath of the morning air. Yawning he stretched his body out on ligament at a time, as he looked back down to see Cynder gently resting beneath, as he smiled. He gently nuzzled her cheek.

"Oh Cyndeerrr..." He said in his usual soft sing-song voice he used every morning.

The black dragoness that lay beside him stirred at the sound of his voice. A few short moments passed before she woke up, yawning softly and stretching out her own legs. She had slept soundly through the night before with her new mate, like she did every night. She leaned her head back and looked at Spyro, smiling softly before she gave his cheek a nice, soft lick.

"Morning, Spyro..." she cooed softly, a light sigh coming out of the female.

"Morning Cyn." Spyro said as he couldn't help but smile widely at such a good morning.

"You want to go check out the egg?" Spyro asked, a glint of happiness shined in his eyes.

Cynder smiled brightly and leaned in to nuzzle him, pressing her head against his neck. "I'd love to Spyro..." she whispered softly.

Cynder still remembered the day she found out she was carrying Spyro's egg...no, their egg, months ago...after they shared that night of passion together. It was the happiest day of her life when she finally birthed it...

Cynder put a paw on the ivory of Spyro's necklace. After all this time they never took them off. The necklaces were like a part of themselves, just as they were part of each other.

Spyro chuckled. "I knew you would." He said as he hopped of the bed, landing on the floor with the grace of a cheetah. He extended his paw to her to help her up out of bed.

Cynder put her paw into his, grasping it gently as she climbed out of the bed, her tail swaying to and fro behind her. "Thank you, Spyro..." she said softly, looking into his eyes for several moments in the early morning silence of the Dragon Temple.

"You're welcome hun." Spyro said as he took a walk towards the door towards the training room, only leaning towards the right this time, expectantly waiting for his love to follow.

The expectations of the purple dragon would not go disappointed. Cynder followed right behind him, and gave his flank a gentle nip before going up beside him, Cynder's smile not disappearing from her face.

"Spyro...do you think the Guardians would be...disappointed in us for doing this?" she asked, her smile turning in a concerned frown as she spoke. "We're still kind of young..."

Spyro jumped a bit at the playful nip. "Ohoho you.." He said as he nuzzled her before he spoke again. "Well, I think we're ready Cynder...even if they don't. I'm ready to share my happiness with you...with someone else. Yeah, we are young. But I think the Guardians will understand. I mean, we saved the planet. How hard could parenthood be?" Spyro asked.

Cynder nodded softly and let out a soft sigh as the wooden door that lead to the training room slid open for them.

"Well, I hope they understand Spyro..." She knew they would understand. In the back of her mind she wondered how Ignitus would react to the news if he was still alive. Something told her he knew, and was smiling down on them, still guarding them after all this time. "I don't know, Spyro...it shouldn't be, it's only a hatchling after all." She said.

"Well if you want to get technical Cynder, it's not a hatchling yet." He said smiling softly at her a bit as he walked through the room.

"Besides what do they know about raising hatchlings?" Spyro asked. He never saw them with hatchlings or talk about kids at all since the time he'd known them. He thought it was a bit hypocritical for them to judge.

Cynder rolled her eyes a little as as they passed through the training room, lightly slapping Spyro's side with her wing.

"Oh, well excuse me Spyro." she jeered, the dragoness giggling. She took a deep breath before she glanced up at the statue of Malefor, as he was before he turned into the Dark Master, displayed as proudly as ever in the center of the chamber. She didn't stop looking at it until they left the room. If she had been a weaker dragoness as she was in the past, that statue would have given her nightmares, as it did once before years back.

"It's okay Cynder. It always will be...I promise he won't hurt you anymore." Spyro said softly as he wrapped his tail around hers before finally moving on to where they were really going.

Cynder sighed softly pressed up against him, her head on the side of his warm, soft neck. "I know Spyro, I know...Thanks." she responded softly. Even though she wasn't afraid of Malefor anymore she still got a weird feeling from that statue.

Cynder dropped the thought from her mind as she continued to walk with Spyro through the curved halls of the Dragon Temple.

Spyro sighed softly. "I'm sure we'll figure this out Cynder. How tough can one hatchling be?"

"Well, neither of us know Spyro. If the Guardians can't help, then we're on our own, we'll just have to see won't we?" " she responded softly.

They kept their egg in the very room where their eggs were kept, on the night of the raid on the Temple. Before putting their egg in the chamber to keep it safe, neither laid their eyes upon the room which brought back many painful memories, even though they were still in their eggs at the time...

"Is it weird I can't wait to see sooner?" Spyro asked as he looked at her before, returning the gentle sincere smile in kind.

Cynder shook her head softly as they finally reached the egg chamber, the doorway barren; the door was destroyed on the night of the raid and many splintered fragments lay scattered across the cold stone floor.

"No, not at all Spyro...because I do too..." she responded as she entered the room. Spyro murred softly as he followed her into the room.

"There it is..." Spyro said beaming with the joy only a father could have looking at his own son. While true, it was only an egg.

As they stepped inside the ruined chamber that had been left untouched by the sands of time, Cynder smiled. There the egg laid just where they always left it, in the center of the chamber on a small pedestal. Cynder's heart warmed every time she lay her eyes on their egg. She never expected that she would be a mother, and even though it actually happened to her, it was still hard to believe.

The egg's shell was a soft grey color, indicating the hatchling would have nice, grey scales. Gently, Cynder leaned forward very slowly and pressed the tip of her nose against the warm egg. The mother-to-be closed her eyes and thought only of the egg and the purple dragon that was her mate in the room with her.

"Any day now Spyro..." she said in a near-whisper, her soft eyes on the egg in a loving gaze. Her eyes fell closed again and she took in a slow, deep breath, sitting down in front of the pedestal.

"Hehe I'm sure whatever the hatching turns out to be..we'll be ready." Spyro replied, as he placed his paw on the egg gently, rubbing it like one would a precious jewel.

Cynder sighed happily and dreamily as she placed her own paw on the egg, put simply kept it resting on their precious little jewel. "I'm sure we will too, Spyro...I know we will..."

"I'm sure we will too. Heh...I can't wait to see who they resemble more, me or you?" Spyro asked softly as he rubbed his paw back and on the egg gently.

"Come on, I'm sure Sparx will want to know how the egg is doing." Spyro said.

Spyro turned around to leave. "Well let's not keep him waiting, he didn't even know I was back until the day after..." Spyro blushed at the thought. "I still feel bad for that." He said looking down.

Cynder smiled and leaned in, gently kissing the delicate egg-shell with all the love a new mother could have. "If we have a boy...I hope he resembles his handsome father..."

As she turned around to follow him out of the dim, silent chamber, she looked behind her shoulder to get one more look at their egg. Even though it would be save in this chamber, she still feared something would happen to it...

"Come on Spyro, don't feel bad...I'm sure he'll be happy to see us." she smiled, lightly patting and rubbing her mate's back with an outstretched wing.

"Yeah, you're right Cynder. He did happily hug me when we visited him at my old parents." He said as he murred at his mate's encouraging and gentle rub to calm him. As he took the few steps out of the doorway...Spyro heard something. The egg had moved...his head raised up in complete alert as he heard it again. "C-Cynder..."

Spyo ran over as quick as he could watching the egg with rapt attention, and after several minutes, heard a cracking sound.

"Oh my goodness, Cynder, it's breaking through." Spyro said as about excited as Volteer was when he would find out anything new about ancient lore.

Cynder just couldn't believe it; after all this time of waiting eagerly and patiently, their little egg was finally breaking free! She watched the egg, her pulse raising and her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

"Spyro...I can't believe it's finally happening..." Cynder leaned in, and started to whisper. "Come on, come on little one..." she whispered softly as a few cracks began to appear in the shell. "You can do it..."

"Come on...come to papa." He cooed softly as he looked at the egg expectantly. With every crack and splinter he could see more and more grey scale, the light coming in through the shell to help them see what the hatchling was starting to look like. With ever second the tension cut into the room until finally Cynder and Spyro could see a little grey beak. A small tiny screech could be heard coming from the hatchling as his first breath. More and more of the shell broke away with each tiny movement of his head until finally..the little hatchling had done it.

"Awwww..." Spyro couldn't help but gently put his muzzle up to the grey hatchling. The hatchlings scales were the color of freshly burned ash, and on his stomach was a small round doubt that would later in life become bigger as he matured. But for now, the small black spot stood out as its eyes opened for the first time.

Cynder felt like he would burst into tears. The more she saw the faster her heart beat, and when the little hatchling was completely free of his shell, his mother was in tears.

"Hello, little one..." Cynder whispered softly as she pressed her snout on the baby dragon's tiny body right next to Spyro's, a small smile on her face. "Mama's here..." she sniffed back her tears, looking over at Spyro. "It's a boy, Spyro...and he's...perfect..." she said in a soft, semi-choked voice. Here lay their new hatchling, rolled over on his side and facing his parents, his small tail wagging in the broken fragments of egg-shell. Retaining her smile of pure happiness, Cynder extended her wing once again and put it over Spyro's back to pull her mate close.

"I love you Spyro..."

"I love you too..." He said as he nuzzled into her. "We should get the guardians in here." Spyro said, beaming with pride at his first-born son.

Cynder nuzzled herself into him, pressing her body as close to him as she possibly could. "Not yet Spyro...let's just enjoy this moment together..." she said, nuzzling and licking at his neck affectionately. "Our little one needs a name, Spyro..."

"I know he does..." He said as looked back at the hatchling who had just made his life with Cynder feel that much more complete. "Well...his eyes remind me of yours a bit. But...that'd be a bad idea." Spyro said as he gently grabbed the hatchling and starting cleaning him up, looking him over for any defining features. "How about Ignitus?...No...that's a bad idea. As much as I'd want to, it just wouldn't be right to burden him with such a title. Hmmm...besides we can honor Ignitus by doing what he told us to do...following our hearts. What do you think his name should be Cynder?"

Cynder liked the idea of naming him after their guardian, but Spyro was right...she didn't want their son growing up with the weight of trying to live up to the expectations that he would be just as great a dragon as Ignitus himself. She looked over the little dragon again, lightly nudging the dragon with her snout which elicited a few small, happy sounds from him that made Cynder smile.

"Hey Cynder, speaking of Ignitus, I think we should involve the other Guardians. This moment is just too special not to share it with the ones we care about." Spyro replied.

Cynder didn't take her eyes off the little infant, lightly licking at his forehead affectionately. "That would be a good idea Spyro...I think they would be happy to see our little hatchling..."

Spyro chuckled a bit, before handing off the little guy over to Cynder. "I'll be right back."

Cynder watched Spyro go before turning back to the baby dragon. She stood back on her hind legs and slid her forepaws around him and pulled him close to her. A sense of pride welled up inside of her; a pride she never felt before, one that could only come with becoming a parent. Cynder closed her eyes and breathed soft, warm air over the small body of the little newborn to keep him warm and comforted by her presence and closeness.

"Mama's here hunny..." Cynder whispered softly, finishing the job of cleaning him off. "I'll keep you warm..."

The hatchling looked at Cynder curiously, trying to figure out who it was that held him. Looking around the room the whole world looked rather new to the hatchling.

"You're in the Dragon Temple, little one..." Cynder said softly, lightly nuzzling his belly with her warm snout. That wouldn't mean much to a dragon who'd only been in the world for a few minutes; she at least hoped he would know she was his mother. "This is your home...and...I'm your mother..." Uttering those words made her happy.

The hatchling looked in wonder at his surroundings.

"Looks like we got a new addition to the gang...congratulations Cynder." Terrador said as he entered the room followed by Cyril and Volteer, then quickly Spyro.

"Hey hey, there you are." Spyro said as he nuzzled her with great affection. "What did I miss?"

Cynder smiled, her tail wagging now that the Guardians were there to share the moment with them. "Thanks Terrador..." she said before nuzzling Spyro back with that same affection and happiness. "You did miss anything Spyro...but I'm glad the Guardians are here with us now."

"What do you think his name should be Cynder?"

"His scales are...really ashy colored..." she looked over the hatchling, then at Spyro. "Maybe...we could name him...Ash?"

"Or perhaps Eridor?" Volteer suggested. Spyro gave him a weird look. "Or Grey." Spyro replied.

"How about Smoke?" Terrador suggested.

Cynder gently rolled the infant on his back and stroked his belly gingerly, thinking over the names in her head. They were all nice names. "It's a pretty hard choice..." she said.

Cyril wondered what they were going to name the hatchling, he bent his head down and sniffed the little hatchling. "I dare say he has Cynder's eyes."

"You know what Cynder, how about we let him choose. We'll ask him which name he likes best." Spyro replied, looking to the newborn hatchling. "Do you like Grey buddy, how does that sound?" He asked.

The newborn didn't give much a response to it, only continuing to lick his mom's muzzle.

"Or Eridor. You know it's the name of a very special..."

The hatchling didn't very well respond to the words of the electric guardians.

"How about Smoke, little guy?" Terrador asked as he looked down at the hatchling.

The hatchling wasn't very responsive to this one either.

"How about Ash?" Cnyder asked as she cradled the new-born in her paws. He gave a pretty nice squeak and a lick at his mom's nose, for however close it was.

"Ash? Why what a peculiar name. I think he loves it." Volteer said.

Cynder blushed and smiled happily at his response, lightly nuzzling her snout against his licks. "I think we've got our answer Spyro. Ash it is then." Cynder closed her eyes and exhaled happily, gently nudging her son comfortingly. It was obvious by looking at her that she was very, very happy.

"May I hold him Cynder?" Spyro asked, gently looking down at their own son. This made him beam with pride.

Cynder nodded and said "Of course Spyro." smiling as she handed off to Spyro.

"Isn't that cute?" Cyril asked Terrador.

"Yeah...yeah it is. Nothing warms an old dragon's heart like seeing the birth of a new family." Terrador said as he looked at the new hatchling.

"It's decided then. We shall call our cute little bundle of joy..." Spyro says as he looks down at Ash, cradling him in his paw. "Ash..." Spyro smiled as Ash looked up at him...for an awkward amount of time the stare session between father and son continued, before Ash finally broke the tension with a sneeze. Spyro chuckled "Oh Cynder...this is far better than I ever could have hoped to dream."

Cynder giggled loudly at the loud, cute sneeze, then looked over at Spyro. She leaned in slowly and placed a soft, gentle kiss on the side of his muzzle, smiling softly and playfully at the purple dragon that was her lover and mate.

"Not even in your dreams, Spyro."

* * *

So that's it. The story is done.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

-Yami.


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